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{EL ay of Interior il^eace. 

IDciiicatcb to ®ur Cabg of |)eacc, 
REV. FATHER 1^ von) LEHEN, S.J. 



Uran5latc& from tbe (German 
BY .^ RE^IvIOIOUS. 



WITH A PREFACE BY 

HIS EMINENCE, CARDINAL GIBBONS. 







New York, Cincinnati, Chicago: 
BENZIGER BROTHERS, 

Prijitei's to the Holy Apostolic See, 



1889. 



Tm Library 
OP Coii«ti88 

WASHmaiioH 



&3 






Copyright 1888, by Benziger Brothers. 



PREFACE. 



The Way of Interior Peace, by Father von Lelien, S. J., 
is regarded as an excellent book for priests, religious, and 
the laity who wish to serve God in peace of heart and mind. 
In it directors of souls can thoroughly learn how to conduct 
their penitents through the devious ways of casuistic trou- 
bles and difficulties. Many persons of good will, but of a 
scrupulous, doubtful, or erroneous conscience, will find a 
true guide and consoler in this book, so calculated to impart 
tranquillity, contentment, and love of God to hearts agitated 
by anxieties of conscience. Appropriate quotations of Holy 
Scripture, principles and opinions of notable theologians, 
of experienced directors of souls, of prominent saints and 
doctors of the Church, are so well arranged and linked 
together that the book commends itself both in form and 
substance. 

It is attractive by its clear, simple, concise style, adapted 
to the capacity of the learned and the unlearned. 

The work was originally written by a holy, learned, and 
experienced director of souls. It has, besides, been recom- 
mended by the venerable and zealous Pishop A. Eilss, of 
Strasburg, lately deceased. The book has not only been 
highly appreciated ever since its appearance m French, but 
also since its translation into German. The fact of its hav- 
mg reached ten editions in German since 1870, and that at 
a time in which thousands of religious were exiled from 
their fatherland by the Kulturkampf, and thousands of 
priests deprived of their salaries by unjust laws, is of itself 
sufficient proof of its intrinsic worth and usefulness. 

The English translation from the German commends 
itself by its fidelity to the original text, as w^ell as by its 
idiomatic and easy style. 

J. Card. Gibboks, 

Aip. Balto. 



APPEOBATION TO THE ENGLISH EDITION. 



The great St. Teresa experienced sadly the want of 
knowledge and skill in several who had attempted to be 
her guide in the paths of perfection. 

In her valuable writings, this great saint speaks of the 
damage that is done to souls by such indiscreet and incapa- 
ble guides. In the remarkable wisdom and prudence which 
so eminently characterized St. Teresa, she most earnestly 
recommends that only those be chosen as directors of souls 
who will be found well trained in the science of that ^^ a7^s 
artiuin," 

We gladly welcome, therefore, the publication of ^^ The 

AYay of Interior Peace/^ a work eminently qualified for this 

object. It has been greatly appreciated in France and 

Germany, and has the hearty approbation of our illustrious 

Cardinal and of many other Prelates. We wish it a wide 

circulation. 

AV. H. Gross, O.SS.E., 

AI)p» Oregon. 
Portland, August 24, 1888. 



APPllOBATION TO THE GEKMAN EDITIOK 



The instructive and edifying book of Kev. Father von 
Lehen, S.J., is a reliable guide on the way of salvation. 
Its being placed within the reach of the German Catholic 
public merits approval and warm commendation. 

«^ AXDREAS, 

BisJiojj of Sh^ashirff. 
Stiusburg, April 3, 1872. 



AUTHOE'S PEEFACE. 



This book is intended to put into the hands of Chris- 
tian souls the proper means of preserving interior peace, 
or, if lost, of regaining it. Its highest recommendation is, 
that in one volume it contains many salutary instructions 
compiled from various excellent works, the special aim of 
which is to secure interior peace. This is that high good 
which Our Lord announced at His entrance into the 
world, and which is an almost indispensable condition to 
progress in virtue or the spiritual life : ^^ Peace to men 
of good-will.'' ' 

But since the preservation of interior peace is for us of 
so great importance, it is easily explained why the Evil 
One makes so many exertions to rob us of this blessing. 

Unfortunately, he succeeds only too well ; for in human 
nature itself, in the errors of the mind and disorderly in- 
clinations, already lies more than the germ of interior 
trouble and disquiet. In fostering these evil propensities, 
by permitting the mind to stray and the will to turn from 
God, it is easy to understand into what misery the hu- 
man heart is plunged. The first condition of interior 
peace is the removal of all hindrances known to man ; the 
second is simple, chilJ-like abandonment to the Divine 
Will in all the mutable events of this life. For both of 
these we have need of a twofold knowledge : that of our 
duty, and that of the way in which God leads us to sanctity. 
The lack of this knowledge is the source, above all others, 
whence innumerable interior anxieties and troubles spring. 

1 Luke ii. 14. 
7 



Author s Preface, 

But such an explanation does not include everything. 
On the way of perfection we meet a thousand unforeseen 
events that may easily throw us off our guard. Some- 
times it is faults into which we unexpectedly fall ; some- 
times^ the thought of the frailty and misery of our nature ; 
again, it may be temptations^ or passions that powerfully 
stir our heart; finally, it may be our neighbor's faults that 
put our patience to the test. All this quickly discourages 
us ; and discouragement is the most dangerous snare for 
souls that have a good-will but are yet weak and inexperi- 
enced. That, therefore, this work should perfectly attain 
its end, we must touch upon all those occurrences that 
give rise to interior trouble, and try to meet each with a 
corresponding remedy. 

To accomplish this task with order and clearness, we have 
divided the book into four parts, each of which, in one way 
or another, refers to the subject. 

Part First treats of resignation to God's will and the 
dispensations of His providence, and is particularly rich in 
consolation for all whom God tries by suffering. The last 
three chapters of this part are chiefly taken from the w^orks 
of Fenelon and Father de la Colombiere. 

Part Second is intended to give a clear and compre- 
hensive idea, first, of true devotion as the surest foun- 
dation of interior peace ; secondly, of the principal deceits 
that endanger this peace ; thirdly, of the necessary condi- 
tions for true and solid progress in virtue ; and fourthly, of 
the way in which God usually leads souls to perfection. 
The writings of St. Francis de Sales and of Fenelon have 
been taken as guides in working out this part. Besides 
this, we have culled many beautiful thoughts from the 
manuscripts of a certain spiritual director as enlightened 
as he was experienced. 

Part Third is addressed more particularly to individ- 
uals. It treats of the various means by which, in all the 
temptations and spiritual infirmities inevitable here below, 
peace of soul and confidence in God may be preserved. 



Author s Preface. 9 

This part contains extracts from different works; for in- 
stance, from the ^^ Spiritual Combat;'^ the ''Treatise on 
Christian Hope/^ by Father Gaud ; and the ''Treatise on 
Discouragement and Temptation/^ by Father Michel. 
From Fenelon are culled the pages that treat more es- 
pecially of prayer. 

Finally, Part Fourth deals with scruples. It enlightens 
the scrupulous upon what they must do to regain lost 
peace ; and it is also to be hoped that it will afford 
souls not suffering from that dangerous malady much that 
will prove useful and consoling. This extract or fourth 
part is based (the necessary changes being made) on Du- 
guet^s precious work on the source of scruples. Numer- 
ous additions taken from reliable sources complete the 
whole. All additions and changes are designated by quo- 
tation-marks, and may thus be distinguished from Duguet^g 
text. 

This same method we have observed throughout the 
other parts of the book, enclosing in quotation-marks ex- 
tracts or passages taken from other works than the chapter 
itself. 

Timid or fearful souls may give all the more credence to 
Duguet^s teaching, as he belonged to a school justly accused 
of extreme severity. 

At the conclusion of the book will be found different 
methods of prayer, which experience has taught will con- 
tribute much to facilitate the spiritual exercises. 

The compilation of so many portions from various 
sources naturally proved injurious to unity of style and 
caused frequent repetitions, which would have been unpar- 
donable if pur aim had been literary perfection. But as 
the end in view is to be preferred, precedence has been 
given it. 

The portions extracted from other writers have been 
inserted in their original wording, in order to insure to 
them full authority. This accuracy will cause literary 
imperfection to be overlooked. 



lO Author s Preface, 

If we have in any way contributed to the consolation of 
a soul in distress^ we shall cheerfully embrace the oppro- 
brium of literary enormities, confidently hoping that they 
to whom this book may prove useful will not fail to pray 
for the soul of him whose words have brought them light 
and consolation. 

We place it in the hands of St. Joseph, begging him to 
commend it to the patronage of Mary, Mother of God. 
May the comfortress of the afflicted obtain peace of heart 
for all who read these lines! 



TEANSLATOR'S PREFACE 

TO THE FIRST GERMAN EDITION. 

The book which we now present to the pious souls of 
Germany has in France, and in a very short time, reached 
four editions. It justly merited so wide-spread a circula- 
tion; for it would be difficult to find another ascetical work 
suited to so many and various needs of the soul, or which 
sets forth so fully and practically the interior life. 

The author. Father von Lehen, S.J., was one of those 
men to whom God gives the requisite qualifications for 
directing others. In him were combined the experience of 
an enlightened man of the world, together with the cul- 
tured piety of a religious. Of a noble, old Breton family, 
trained from early years to esteem honor and justice, he 
devoted the first period of his youth to the study of law. 
But God had other designs upon him. He directed the 
steps of the pious youth into the sanctuary, where only 
could his soul find the nourishment it desired. After per- 
fecting himself in the sciences and finishing his juridical 
studies, having received in both branches the degree of 
Doctor, he entered the Society of Jesus. At that time this 
Order was not legally recognized in France. The greater 
part of the French Jesuits had, therefore, to seek elsewhere 
their religious and scientific training. Accordingly, von 
Lehen was sent to Savoy, to finish his studies. Here he 
was acknowledged, in every respect, the model of a perfect 
religious. What called for particular admiration in him 
was his great love for the interior life. Those that knew 
him best saw in him the future skilful master of novices. 
And, in reality, soon after his profession the responsible 
office of training the novices of the Society was confided to 
him for a number of years, both in Alsace and Amiens. 

11 



12 Translator s Preface. 

This position afforded him an opportunity not only of 
putting to profit his knowledge of the spiritual life/but 
also of daily increasing his own experience in it. The 
result he has confided to the readers of his ^^Way of 
Interior Peace. '' From this book may be conjectured with 
what insight^ prudence^ and care the author devoted him- 
self to the difficult task of directing souls. He himself 
acknowledged one day^ in confidential intercourse^ that he 
sometimes searched through entire volumes to find a single 
line corresponding to the wants of a soul confided to him. 
This he did not only because in his charity he wished to 
give what was best and most suited to instruct^ but also 
because^ for the sake of security^ he desired to support his 
decisions on the authority of approved spiritual writers. 

Father von Lehen died at Angers in the sixty-second 
year of his age. 

He had long desired to see his work translated into 
German^ that it might in Germany^ also, be of use to 
many souls interested in their own salvation. But as the 
book was in its first form rather crude, on account of its 
numerous repetitions and literary defects, it would have 
been but poorly received in Germany. We have, there- 
fore, not only translated, but also endeavored to give it a 
more pleasing style, by abridging and uniting its several 
parts. 

May it, in its new garb, effect as much good as it has 
done in the old! 



PREFACE TO THE THIRD GERMAN 
EDITION. 

About two years have elapsed since this unpretending 
little book made its first appearance in German. The fact 
that a third edition has so soon become a necessity is proof 
sLiffio'ent of the welcome everywhere accorded it. Althougli 



P^^eface to the TJiird German Edition, 13 

similar works have had equal success^ yet the sale of this 
has been more rapid than recent political events would 
have allowed us to hope. • 

It is, assuredly, pleasant and consoling to know that, in 
the midst of the tumult of the world and the sounding of 
the war tocsin, a voice was heard proclaiming the way to 
interior peace; and that far from being stifled by the bustle 
around it, it made itself heard and gained the attention it 
demanded. 

Many of the daily papers noticed the book favorably, and 
not a few were the congratulations received by the editor 
on his success. 

What is most generally praised is Father von Lehen^s 
ability in demonstrating the theory of asceticism and the 
solidity with which he works out its practice. These are 
two advantages not possessed by all ascetic writers ; for 
whilst one leaves his reader in ignorance of what constitutes 
true piety, another presents it in so radiant a light that 
poor human nature seems altogether incapable of attaining it. 

ISTow, the author, Kev. Father von Lehen, S.J., combines 
these two merits with that of not requiring from all souls 
the same degree of perfection. He knows how to meet 
human weakness, and how to distinguish in piety the 
essential from the non-essential. In this way he infuses 
courage into the weakest. He urges them to approach the 
fountain of grace, and taste how sweet it is to serve the 
Lord. 

May the God of peace grant to this new edition, as to 
those that have preceded it. His blessing, that all who seek 
the ^MVay of Interior Peace ^^ may, by its aid, find it and 
walk therein ! 

Feast of the Se\^n Dolors, March, 1873. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Preface, 3 

Approbation to the English Edition, 4 

Approbation to the German Edition, 4 

Author's Preface, 5 

Translator's Preface to the First German Edition, ... 9 

Preface to the Third German Edition, 10 

PART I. 
Of Resignation to the Dispensations of Divine Providence. 

Chapter I. — Of the Loving Dispensations of Divine Providence 
toward Men, and of the Happiness of those that wholly 
submit to Its Decrees, 21 

Chapter II. — In what we should submit to the Ordinances of 

Divine Providence, 38 

Chapter III. — Why and How we should Eesign Ourselves to 

God's Will, 59 

Chapter TV. — Of the Utility of Sufferings for the Just. — Of 

their Necessity for the Sinner, 68 

Chapter Y. — Of the Good Use of Sufferings, . . . .75 

PAET II. 

True Piety the Indispensable Foundation of Interior Peace. — 
The Way in which God leads Souls to Peace and Per- 
fection. 

Chapter I. — The Foundation of True Piety. — Points in which 

we should Imitate the Example of the Saints, . . .83 

Chapter II — We must Serve God according to His Will and 

not for the Gratification of our own Inclinations, . . 92 
15 



1 6 Contents. 

Chapter III. — Of the Sacrament of Penance, and of the Peace 

and Comfort found in its Reception, . . . .96 

Chapter IV. — Of Holy Communion. — What is required to re- 
ceive worthily, and the Reason that It is for so many a 
Subject of Fear, 106 

Chapter V. — Of Prayer and the Manner of Fulfilling this Duty. 

—Of the False Ideas often formed of this Exercise, . .115 

Chapter YI. — The Knowledge of God and of One's Self the 

First Condition of Solid Virtue and True Peace, . .122 

Chapter VII. — Patience with Self the Second Requisite of 

True Piety and Peace of Soul, 1 29 

Chapter VIII. — We should ~ Courageously Labor at our Ad- 
vancement, and thereby, w^ithout losing Interior Peace, 
draw^ Spiritual Benefit from our Faults and Miseries, . 137 

Chapter IX. — Of the Transition from a state of Sensible Devo- 
tion to that of Pure Faith and Spoliation, . . .148 

Chapter X. — Of Self Renunciation and the Total Surrender of 
Self to God, the Last Condition for Obtaining Constant 
Interior Peace, 154 

PAET III. 

Of the Means for Preserving Peace Amid Spiritual Weaknesses. 

Chapter I. — Various Instructions on these Means, . . . 164 
First Point. Fundamental Maxims on Liberty of Spirit, . . 164 
Second Point. Of the Snares by which the Fiend seeks to rob 
us of Peace, and of the Means by which to Defend Our- 
selves against him, 1 65 

Uiird Point. The Soul when Disturbed should strive to Re- 
gain her Calm as soon as possible, 167 

Fourth Point. Of Watchfulness over Self, . . . .168 

i^^/'^/^ P<?mi5. Of Mistrust of Self , 169 

Sixth Point. Of Confidence in God, 171 

Seventh Point. A Mark of True Confidence in God and Mis- 
trust of Self, 172 

Eighth Point. How greatly Diffidence and Mistrust offend the 

Lord and Injure the Soul, 174 

Chapter II. — Of Faults Springing from Weakness, . . .177 
First Point. One should without Disquiet or without Mistrust 

Return to God when he has Fallen into Venial Sin, . . 177 
Second Point. Frequent Relapses into Venial Sins are not al- 
ways a Sign of Insufficient Sorrow for them, . . .182 



Contents. 1 7 



PAGE 

TJiird Paint How God Permits the Venial Sins of the Just 
and all their other Imperfections to Redound to their 
Greatest Good, 184 

Fourth Point. Of Bearing with Self and our Daily Faults and 
Weaknesses, 191 

Fifth Paint. The Faults of our Neighbor should Disturb our 
Peace as Little as the Imperfections Found in every 

Human Virtue 193 

Chapter III. — Of Discouragement, 197 

First Point. Evil Consequences of Discouragement, . . 197 

Second Point. Why Discouragement occasions so much Harm, 200 

Third Point, The True Foundation of Christian Hope the same 
for All Men, 202 

Fourth Paint. The Passions and Merits of Christ a new Foun- 
dation for Confidence, 204 

Fifth Paint. To be Wanting in Confidence, is to be Wanting 
in Faith, 206 

Sixth Point. No Victory without Combat; No Combat with- 
out Labor, 208 

Seventh Point. He who Anticipates Future Combats and Suf- 
ferings Tempts both God and Man, 212 

Eighth Paint. Aversion, Disgust, and Weariness in God's Ser- 
vice are not Unfrequeutly the Sources of Unreasonable 
Discouragement, 214 

Ninth Point. We should not Pray God to Free us from our 
Sufferings and Combats. — Should we do so, we must not 
desire to have such Petitions Immediately Granted, . . 217 
ChapterIV.— Of Temptations, , . 221 

First Paint. Temptations are no Proof that God has forsaken 
a Soul 221 

Second Paint, Temptations are no Evidence of a Bad State of 

Soul, 223 

Third Point. In Temptation we should Turn to God. — He sus- 
tains us in the Combat without our Perceiving it, . . 225 

Fourth Paint. How one may Know whether or not he has 

Consented to Temptation, 226 

Fifth Point. Passing Temptations, 229 

Sixth Paint. Lasting Temptations, and those that Powerfully 
Affect the Senses, 230 

Seventh Point. On Temptations that Retard us in the Practice 
of Virtue, 232 

Eighth Paint. One should not Parley with the Tempter. — Means 
by which we may Turn from the Temptation, . . . 234 



i8 



Contents. 



PAGE 

Ninili Point How Temptations proceeding from the Imagina- 
tion are to be Combated, . . . . . . . 238 

Tenth Point. Of Frequently Recurring Temptations.— In Time 
of Peace Prepare for War, 243 

Eleventh Point. Of the Advantages of Temptation, . . . 245 

Twelfth Point. Devotion to the ever-Blessed Virgin Mary is 
an Excellent Remedy against Temptations and a Means 
of Preserving Interior Peace, 247 

Tliirteenth Point. Means Against Sadness, .... 250 
Chapter Y. — On Prayer, 252 

First Point. For What we should Pray. — We must Persevere in 

Prayer, 252 

Second Point. Various Instructions on Prayer and on the Dry- 
ness often Experienced in it, 259 



PAET IV. 
Of Scruples. 

Chapter I.— What is to be Understood by Scruples. — The Dif- 
ference between the Scrupulous and the Trul}^ Pious. — 
Certain Characteristics by which Scruples may be recog- 
nized, 

Chapter II. — General Causes of Scruples, 



1. Weakmindedness, 

2. A Perplexed Brain, . 

3. An Unbridled Imagination, 

4. Ideal Perfection, 

5. Imperfect Knowledge of Religious Principles, 

6. Too many Reflections upon Self and One's own Inten 

7. How Difficult it is to Judge One's Self Justly, 

8. The Difficulty in Distinguishing the Thought from Im- 
pressions, and the Impressions from Consent, . . . 275 

9. A Tender, Timorous Conscience, 277 

10. The Malice of the Devil, , 278 

Chapter III. — Dangerous Consequences of Scruples, . . 280 
Chapter IV. — Universal Remedies for Scruples, . . . 282 

1. Occupation, 282 

2. Cheerfulness, 282 

3. Humility and Child-like Simplicity, 283 

4. Conscience Considered in the True Light, .... 285 

5. The Necessity of Depending upon Another, and of follow- 

lowing his Advice, 287 



265 

268 
268 
268 
269 
270 
271 
274 
274 



Contents. 19 

PAGE 

6. Sacrifice of One's own Doubts, 289 

Chapter V. — Various Kinds of Scruples, and their Remedy, . 292 

1. Scruples about Former Confessions, 292 

2. Scruples of Ordinary Confessions, 293 

3. Scruples on Sincerity of Contrition.— Good Resolutions, . 298 

4. Scruples about Devotions of Obligation, .... 300 

5. Scruples about Motives of Well-doing, .... 302 

6. Scruples about Duties Supposed to be Essential, . . 304 

7. Scruples with Respect to Hope, the Soul Believing herself 

in a Bad State, 305* 

8. Scruples that Make us see in everything a Punishment 
from God, 308 

9. Scruples that Make us Consider Little Faults an occasion 
for Greater Ones, 310 

10. Scruples wath regard to Faith. — Does One really Believe 

or not? 312 

11. Scruples about Temptations against Faith, . . .314 

12. Scruples about Temptations to Blasphemy, . . . 316 

13. Scruples from Ambiguous Points Suggested by the Imag- 
ination, 318 

14. Scruples concerning Christian Love of the Neighbor, . 319 

15. Scruples on Holy Purity, 322 

Chapter VI. — Conclusion and Summary of What has been said 

of Scruples and the Remedies for them, .... 330 
Chapter VII.— Examples of the Danger that attends Self- 

Willed Persistence in Scruples, 336 



APPENDIX. 

Preparatory Remarks, 342 

General Remarks upon each of the Various Methods of Prayer, 342 
First Method of Prayer.— The Actual Meditation, . . .344 
Second Method of Prayer. — The Contemplation, . . . 348 

Third Method of Prayer, . 350 

Fourth Method of Prayer, 352 

Fifth Method of Prayer, 355 

Sixth Method of Prayer. — Spiritual Reading in the Form of Con- 
sideration, 355 

Method for Examination of Conscience, 357 

Directions to Render the Exercises of the Monthly Retreat of 

one Day Profitable, ........ 361 



20 Contents. 

PAGE 

Meditation for the Eve of the Retreat, 361 

Meditation for the Day of Retreat, 363 

Reflections on the Present State of the Soul, .... 364 

Preparation for Death, 368 

Prayer of Absolute Submission to the Law of Death, . . 369 

Prayer to Obtain a Happy Death, 370 

Invocation, . 371 



PART I. 

OF RESIGNATION TO THE DISPENSATIONS 
OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 



CHAPTER I. 

Of the Loving Dispensations of Divine Providence 

toward Men, and of the Happiness of those 

that wholly submit to Its Decrees. 

IR*^'HI OTHIXG happens in this world but by the direc- 
Bfe^ra tion or permission of God. " Nothing/' says St. 
Irt¥^*^l Augustine^ '^ occurs by chance in the whole 
course of our life. God overrules all/' He has said by 
the mouth of the prophet Isaias: '^I am the Lord and 
there is no other ; I form light and create darkness^ I 
make peace and create evil.'' ^ '' Shall there be evil in a city, 
which the Lord hath not done?''^ says Amos. ^'Good 
things and evil/' adds Sirach^ "MIq and deaths poverty and 
riches^ are from God." ^ 

It may^ perhaps^ be said that this holds good in sickness 
and in deaths in cold and in heat^ and in all the events of 
inanimate nature ; but not in what depends upon the free- 
will of man. You say, ^'If some one speaks evil of me, 
defrauds me, persecutes and ill-treats me, is that the will 
of God ? How can I see God's will in that? Does He not 
forbid such actions? Consequently, 1 can ascribe them 

^ IsaJas xlv, 7, 2 Amos iii. 6. ^ Ecclus, xi, 14, 



2 2 Resignation to the Dispensatio7is of Providence. 

only to the evil designs^ to the wickedness^ or to the igno- 
rance of men/^ Bnt^ I answer, God Himself speaks clearly 
and distinctly on this point. On His own Holy Word, we 
must believe that even what appears to be left to the caprice 
of men, must be attributed to God's permission. The Jews 
imputed their captivity to other causes than the dispensa- 
tion of Providence. The prophet Jeremias says: "^'AVho is 
he that hath commanded a thing to be done, when the Lord 
commandeth it not? Shall not both evil and good proceed 
out of the mouth of the Most High?'^ ' 

Therefore, when we are robbed of our good name, de- 
spoiled of our wealth, abused, or otherwise wronged, we 
must ascribe it to the will of God. It is His hand that is 
visiting us; all is the work of His providence. 

But, again, you object, ^"^All such actions are sinful. 
How can God will them ? How can He take part therein ? 
God's essence being holiness itself. He can have nothing 
in common with sin.'' I answer: In every evil deed two 
things must be clearly demonstrated: namely, the action 
itself, or the exterior movement; and the straying of the 
will from the Divine Law. Does your neighbor strike you, 
or calumniate you? You must, on the one hand, distin- 
guish the motion of the arm or of the tongue; and, on the 
other, the evil intention that directs the movement. The 
movement itself is not sinful ; therefore God can be the 
Author of it. And this He really is, for no creature has 
life or motion of itself; all receive it from God, who works 
in them and by them. The evil intention, on the contrary, 
is entirely the work of the human will, and it alone makes 
the sin. In this God takes no part. He permits the evil 
act, m order not to do violence to the free-will of men. 

Accordingly, God shares in the deeds of men only in so 
far as He contributes to the exterior movement. The bad 
intention underlying the act proceeds from our will; and m 
this God has no part. You have abused your honor, your 
riches — God wills that you should-lose the one or the other; 

^ Jeremias iii 37, ^ 



Loving Dispensations of Divine Providence, 23 

but He takes no part in the sin of either the robber or the 
calumniator. Let ns illustrate by an example : The judge 
passes condign sentence of death upon a criminal. Now, 
it happens that the hangman is a personal enemy of the 
condemned. He executes the sentence upon the culprit, 
Hot merely because his office obliges him to do so, but 
because he is animated by a spirit of hatred and revenge. 
Evidently, the judge has no share in the sin of the exe- 
cutioner. The gratification of revenge formed no part 
of the judge^s design in passing the sentence. He aimed 
only at seeing justice executed. In like manner, God 
shares not in the evil designs of the calumniator or the 
robber; consequently, the wicked intention is wholly con- 
fined to the latter. God wills you to be humbled and de- 
prived of temporal goods, that thereby you may become 
better and more virtuous. This, in His eternal goodness, 
is His only intention; and this He might effect by a thou- 
sand other means if He so willed. But He in no way con- 
tributes to the sin of men, though He may make use of 
them as instruments for the fulfilment of His designs. It 
is, then, really not the sin that humbles you, that plunges 
you into poverty or misery; it is the blow dealt at your 
honor, the loss of your wealth, that produces those effects, 
for the sin itself hurts him only who commits it. AVe must 
always discriminate between what God accomplishes througli 
the instrumentality of men and what their own evil wdll 
may add thereto. 

St. Gregory shows us this in the following example : ^"^ A 
physician has ordered leecheSo The little creatures are m- 
tent only on satisfying their thirst. They would for this 
end deprive the sick man of the very last drop of the vital 
fluid; but the physician seeks only to withdraw the imx- 
pure blood and, by so doing, restore his patient to health. 
The leeches are merely his instruments. He has nothing 
in common with their thirst for blood. God makes use 
of man in precisely the same way that a physician does 
of leeches. As for the patient himself, he feels no anxiety. 



24 Resig7tation to the Dispensations of Providence. 

He does not look upon the leeches as enemies; on the con- 
trary, he endeavors to suppress the disgust aroused by the 
sight of them. Yes, he even does all in his power to facili- 
tate their action, for he knows very well that it will be con- 
tinued no longer than the physician considers efficacious/^ 
In like manner, should we endure those to whom God has 
given command over us. We should neither judge their 
intentions nor harbor aversion against them. We should 
rest satisfied that, however hostile or inimical they may be 
toward us, they are only instruments of salvation in the 
hands of an All-good, x\ll-wise. All-powerful God. He will 
give them no more power over us than is for our good. 
Our own interest should impel us to embrace rather than 
to withdraw from their guidance ; for they exercise over us, 
not their own, but the Lord's authority. Creatures can do 
us no harm, unless power is given them from on high. 

All enlightened souls have been firmly convinced of this 
truth. The history of Job presents a beautiful illustration 
of it. Job is bereft of his children, and stripped of all his 
wealth; from the pinnacle of human happiness he falls to 
the depths of earthly misery, and what does he say ? '' The 
Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away: as it hath pleased 
the Lord, so is it done: blessed be the name of the Lord.'' ^ 

" Behold,'' says St. Augustine, " how this holy man un- 
derstood the great mystery of God's providence! He did not 
say: ^The Lord hath given me children and riches, and 
the devil hath taken them from me. ' But he said: ' The 
Lord hath given, the Lord hath taken. As it has pleased 
the Lord, and not as it has pleased the devil, also is it 
done.'" Not less striking is the example of the Egyptian 
Joseph. His brothers, actuated by hatred and envy, sold 
him ; but he ascribed all to God's providence. " God/' he 
said, '' sent me before you into Egypt for your preserva- 
tion, that you may be preserved upon the earth, and may 
have food to live. . . . Not by your counsel was I sent 
hither, but by the will of God." ' 

^ Job i, SI. 2 Qen, xjv. 5, 7, a» 



Loving Dispensations of Divine Providence. 25 

David^ pursued and insulted by Semei, sees the hand of 
Providence in the insolent behavior of his unruly subject. 
Twice did he with the words^ " Let him alone and let him 
curse: for the Lord hath bid him curse David /^ ^ restrain 
his indignant servant who wished to avenge him. And 
Jesus Christ Himself, the Holy of Holies, Our Lord and 
Saviour, who came down from heaven to teach us by His 
word and example, did He not say to Peter, wlio with in- 
considerate zeal urged Him to avert His sufferings and 
deliver Himself from the hands of His enemies: '^The 
chalice which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink 
it ?" ^ Jesus attributed the ignominy and pain of His bitter 
torments, not to their immediate authors; not to the Jews 
that accused Him ; not to Judas, who betrayed Him ; not 
to Pilate who condemned Him ; not to the executioners 
who, with most horrible treatment, dragged Him to death; 
not to the devil, the instigator of the shocking deed: but 
only to God, in whom He saw, not a cruel Judge, but a 
loving Father. 

We must not attribute our losses, our misfortunes, our 
sufferings, our humiliations, to the evil spirit or to man; 
but to their true author, God. Let us not venture to say: 
" This one or that one is the cause of my misfortune, my 
ruin,^^ Is'o, our trials are not the work of man. They are 
God^s own work. This will redound to our greater tran- 
quillity, for all that God, the best of fathers, does is full 
of infinite wisdom ; all is subservient to His highest and 
holiest purposes. 

^'^All God^s works,^ say the holy Fathers, ^^are perfect, 
performed with weight and measure. ^^ They are so good 
that they could not possibly be better. We should, as St. 
Basil recommends, be thoroughly convinced that we are 
the work of a good Master, who, with infinite foresight, is 
at all times occupied with us. His creatures. Under His 
loYing protection, nothing can befall us contrary to His 
will. Nothing can hurt us without His permission. What- 

1 JJ. Kings xvi. 10, 11. ^ John xviii. 11, 



26 Resignation to the Dispensations of Providence, 

ever happens to us is so good that nothing better can be 
imagined. ^' Great are the works of the Lord : sought out 
according to all His wills/^ ^ The most striking character- 
istic of God's wisdom is the perfect conformity of the 
means He employs to the end. And as His wisdom cannot 
be separated from His love^ He sends us nothing that is 
too hard or too painful for us to bear. ^^ Almighty Sov- 
ereign/'^ cries out the Wise Man^ '^^Thou judgest with tran- 
quillity, and with great favor disposest of us.''^^ Infinite 
is His power; nothing can withstand it. And yel God does 
not make us feel the absolute dominion of His sovereignty; 
He deals with us in mildness. He takes into consideration 
the natural character, the talents of each individual. He 
assigns to each the place in which he can best work out his 
salvation. Yes, we may even venture to say that He treats 
us with deference and respect, because He recognizes in us 
His living image. He commands us, not imperiously as 
slaves, but with forbearance and all possible consideration. 
Is He, for our good, compelled to visit us with sickness, 
trouble, or other painful afflictions. He acts like a good 
physician who must effect a cure by using the knife. But 
how gently He makes the incision ! With what tender 
care He dresses our wounds ! His whole aim is to cause us 
no more pain than is indispensably necessary for the suc- 
cess of the operation. How lovingly He sweetens the bitter 
potion ! 

Ah ! God tries us only that we may attain perfection ; 
and this for the holiest and noblest end that can be con- 
ceived. His own honor and glory. 

What God sends us is always proportioned to our 
strength and abilities. It is suited to our needs as the 
glove to the hand that wears it, or the scabbard to the 
sword hidden within. All things would contribute to our 
perfection if we corresponded to the intentions of Divine 
Providence. 

When tribulations overwhelm us, let us not grow im- 

1 Psalm ex. 2. 2 Wisdom xii. 18. 



Loving Dispensations of Divine Providence. 27 

patient. As God sets bounds to earth and sea, as He 
directs the waves that threaten the land with destruction 
until they break on the moving sands of the shore, so does 
He mete out our trials and temptations. He has measured 
their extent. He has set limits to their duration, He 
watches that they should further our salvation and not 
our ruin. Tribulations are, indeed, an essential feature in 
the means that work unto salvation. " For gold and silver 
are tried in the fire, but acceptable men in the furnace of 
humiliation/' ' Temptations are necessary. In refusing 
to accept tliem, we become our own enemies. We are in 
the hands of God like a block of marble in the hands of 
the sculptor. To form a beautiful statue, the workman 
must use the chisel and the hammer; he must hew and 
hack the marble ; he must make the splinters fly. God 
intends to fashion us to His own image; therefore, we must 
passively submit to His skilful hand. Every stroke is a 
master-touch toward our sanctification. ^'^ For this is the 
will of God, your sanctification,''^ says St. Paul.^ Yes, our 
sanctification is the only end God has in view in all that 
He sends us. what would He not effect in us for His 
glory and our perfection if we allowed Him ! Look at the 
heavenly bodies. See how unresistingly they follow estab- 
lished laws; admire the uninterrupted regularity of their 
course. Were they for one moment to deviate from these 
sublime laws, the whole universe would be thrown into 
fearful confusion. And so it is with our will. Does it 
yield to God^'s will, all in man is well-ordered ; and the 
powers of his soul, like the members of his body, abide in 
perfect harmony. But let the will swerve from that of 
God, and confusion and disorder reign in the whole man. 
Perfection consists in nothing else than in conformity to 
the will of God. The more fully we submit to the Divine 
Will the more we advance ; when we resist it, we go back- 
ward. St. Teresa said to her spiritual daughters : ^^ Direct 
your prayer to one thing only, that is, to conform your 

1 Ecclus. ii. 5. 2 Thess. iv. 3. 



28 Resignation to the Dispensations of Pi'ovidence. 

will perfectly to the Divine Will. Be assured that there is 
no greater perfection attainable than this conformity^ and 
that they who most earnestly strive for it will receive from 
God the richest graces and most quickly advance in the 
interior life. Believe me^ this is the secret. Upon this 
point alone rests our sanctification/^ It is related that the 
Blessed Sancino, a very saintly religious of the Dominican 
Order, once saw in vision the felicity of the blessed, 
who were ranked according to their merits among the 
nine choirs of angels. In the choir of seraphim, she re- 
marked some whom she had known upon earth. Upon 
inquiring how they had attained so high a degree of bless- 
edness, she was answered: ^^By conformity and perfect 
union of will to the will of God V^ But if, by this con- 
formity, we are to arrive at the highest degree of glory 
in heaven, even to the rank of the seraphim, may we not 
conclude that the same virtue raises us on earth, to the 
highest degree of grace, and that it is the foundation of 
the sublimest perfection attainable in this life ? 

The submission of our will is, in truth, the most pleasing 
sacrifice that we can make to God, and the one that honors 
Him most. It is the most perfect act of love, the most 
elevating and meritorious virtue. By it we can at every 
moment amass incomparable treasures of grace, and gain 
in a short time the richest merits for eternity. A remark- 
able example of this is given in the life of a certain holy 
religious who was not distinguished in any way from his 
brethren ; and yet he had reached so high a degree of per- 
fection and sanctity that the mere touch of his garments 
healed the sick. Once his Superior said to him : "^^How 
is it ? You pray, you fast, you watch no more than any 
other member of this community ; and yet you work so 
many miracles ! I am surprised at this. I should like to 
know the cause of it.'' The good religious replied: '^ These 
wonders astonish me more than they do others. I know 
not their true cause. But if I were allowed to guess, I 
should say only this, that I am always most careful to will 



Loving Dispensations of Divine Providence, 29 

what God wills. He has given me the grace to unite my 
will so closely with His that^ in little as well as in great 
things, I do nothing without His particular inspiration. 
Success does not elate me, nor does misfortune cast me 
down; for, without losing time in examining, I take the 
one and the other equally from the hand of God I do not 
desire things to turn out as I might naturally wish, but 
simply and only as God wills. All my prayers tend to one 
end ; namely, that the will of God should be perfectly 
accomplished in me and in all creatures.''^ 

^^What!'^ exclaimed the astonished Superior, ^^were 
you not disturbed when an enemy set fire to our barn the 
other day, when our whole harvest and all our cattle were 
burned V^ 

^^Ko, Father, ^^ replied the religious; *^^on the contrary, 
my custom is to thank God for such reverses, because I am 
firmly convinced that He permitted it only for His greater 
glory and our good. Therefore I did not concern myself 
as to whether much or little of our property escaped tlie 
fiames ; for I know that God, if w^e confide in Him, can 
feed us with a scrap of bread as well as with a whole barn 
full of grain. Hence, come what may, I am always peace- 
ful and joyful. ^^ 

The Superior admired his perfect conformity with the 
will of God, and his confidence in Divine Providence. He 
was no longer astonished at seeing this religious w^orking 
miracles. 

AYe see by this example that conformity to God's will 
makes us not only holy, but also perfectly happy. It fills us 
with the sweetest peace that can be tasted in this life, and 
makes earth a paradise. King Alfonso the Great very 
justly expressed this truth. When asked Avhom he consid- 
ered the happiest on earth, he answered : " They that give 
themselves up entirely to the guidance of God, and accept 
everything, joy and sorrow, from His hand.'' God Himself 
says by the mouth of the prophet Isaias: '^'^Oli, that thou 
hadst hearkened to My commandments: thy peace had 



30 Resignation to the Dispensations of Providence. 

been as a river !'^ ^ And in the same sense Elipliaz speaks 
to Job: ^'Submit thyself then to Him and be at peace. 
Then shalt thou abound in delights in the Almighty^ and 
shalt lift up thy face to God.''^ Thus, also, sang the holy 
angels at the birth of Christ: '^ Glory to God in the highest, 
and on earth peace to men of good-will/^ ^ But who are 
those men of good-will? They whose will is perfectly con- 
formed to the divine good-will, the will of God. 

Good-will, or conformity to the will of God, is also the 
condition of that blessed interior peace wdiich, according to 
St. Paul, ' ' surpasseth all understanding. ^^ " Would we enjoy 
peace? Then nothing must resist our will; all must go ac- 
cording to our wishes. But such happiness here below is 
reserved for those only whose will is entirely one with the 
will of God. All that such a one wills shall be exactly ac- 
complished; for he wills only what God wills. 

^^I firmly believe, ^^ said the eloquent Salvianus, ^*that 
no one on earth is happier than the righteous, for nothing 
can happen to them that they do not desire.'' " But shall 
even the righteous endure humiliation and contempt ?'' 
Yes, indeed; but they long for them. " Are they poor?'" 
They are; but they love poverty, and consequently they 
are happy. For who is happier, who more at rest, than he 
that is what he wishes to be ? Solomon says: " AVhatsoever 
shall befall the just man, it shall not make him sad.''' 
Nothing shall disturb the peace of his soul, because noth- 
ing happens to him contrary to his will. 

Not that I wish in any manner to imply that man in this 
happy state shall experience no more sufferings. We shall 
assuredly feel our sorrows even after we have perfectlv 
conformed to the will of God; but we feel them only in the 
inferior part of the soul. They do not disturb the superior, 
the nobler part, wherein dwells the peace of God. A soul 
truly resigned to God is like our Divine Lord, who, though 
scourged and fastened to the ignominious Avood of the cross^, 

1 Is. xlviii. 18. 2 Job xxii. 21, 26. 3 Luke ii. 14. 

■* Phil. iv. 7, 5 Pfov. xii. 21. 



Loving Dispensatio7is of Divine Providence, 3 1 

yet ceased not to be liappy. Immersed as He was in an 
ocean of suffering, His Sacred Heart still overflowed with 
infinite joy. 

Doubtless, to our nature the thought of suffering, hu- 
miliation, confusion, and poverty is directly opposed to our 
ideas of happiness; and only by a miracle of grace can we 
rejoice in the midst of such evils. But such a miracle will 
certainly be wrought in the souls of all that give themselves 
up unreservedly to the accomplishment of the Divine Will. 
The honor of God demands that all who generously devote 
themselves to His service should experience therein con- 
tentment and happiness. 

Perhaps in many souls the question will arise: ^^If this 
is so, how are we to understand the words of Jesus Christ: 
' If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and 
take up his cross and follow Me^ V ^ The question is not a 
difficult one, and may be readily answered. When our 
Divine Master requires, as the condition of our happiness, 
that we should deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow 
Him, He pledges Himself to give us not only eternal life, 
but also a hundredfold here below over and above all that, 
for love of Him, we have renounced.^ Still more. He prom- 
ises to carry the cross with us, else He would not say: " My 
yoke is sweet and My burden light. ^^ ^ If we do not expe- 
rience how sweet is the yoke of Jesus, and how light is the 
weight of His cross, it can only proceed from the fact of 
our not having rightly taken up its burden. We have not 
fully renounced our natural views, not yet learned to con- 
sider all things in the light of faith; for faith teaches us, in 
the words of the great Apostle to the Gentiles, " In all 
things give thanks: for this is tne will of God in Christ 
Jesus concerning you all.^^^ This faith shall be for us an 
exhaustless fountain of that unspeakable and lasting joy 
assured to us by the same Apostle: ^^Kejoice in the Lord 
always: again, I say, rejoice. ^^' 

1 Matt. xvi. 24. 2 Matt. xix. 29. 3 Matt. xi. 30. 

^ Thess. V. 18, » PhU. iv. 4. 



32 Resignation to tlie Dispensations of Providence, 

A memorable example of this truth is given iis by Tauler. 
This worthy priest ardently desired to make rapid progress 
in perfection; but^ in his humility he feared to rely on his 
own judgment. For eight years he prayed fervently and 
humbly that God would be pleased to send him a director 
who would point out to him the shortest and safest way to 
His love. One day he felt himself more powerfully urged 
than ever to implore God to grant his prayer. Suddenly 
a voice said to him: ^^Go out to the church door. There 
you will learn what you desire. ""^ Tauler obeyed. He went 
out; but saw no one except a poor beggar, ragged and bare- 
foot, who stood there apparently more calculated to ex- 
cite the compassion of the passers-by than to direct them 
in the interior life. 

Tauler, approaching, wished him good-day. " I thank 
you for your friendly salutation,^^ answered the beggar, 
^'but I cannot remember having ever had a bad day.''^ 
" Goodr exclaimed Tauler. " I hope that to the good days 
you have had God may add every possible happiness.^^ 
" Thank you,'^ replied the beggar, ^^bufc know that I have 
never been unhappy, that in my whole life no disaster has 
ever befallen me.^' " God grant, ^"^ said Tauler astonished, 
^^that with all your happiness you may attain eternal bless- 
edness! But I must admit that the sense of your words is 
not quite clear to me.''^ 

^^ You will be yet more astonished, ^^ replied the beggar, 
'' when I assure you that I have ahvays been happy, and 
that I am still so.^^ ^'^ Indeed !^^ replied Tauler; ^' but your 
words are unintelligible; they astonish me. Be so good as 
to explain yourself.'^ ^^ Listen, ^^ returned the beggar. 
'^^I told you that I had never had a bad day, for our days 
are bad only when we do not employ them in honoring God 
by submission; on the contrary, they are always good when 
we use them to honor and glorify Him; and this, by His 
grace, we can always do, come what may. I am, as you 
see, a miserable beggar, sick, homeless, and without sup- 
port. I wander alone through the worlds finding misery 



Loving Dispensations of Divine Providence, 33 

everywhere. If I am hungry, because no one gives me to 
eat, I praise God. If I am exposed to rain, hail, and wind; 
if my poor rags are insufficient to protect my limbs be- 
numbed by the piercing cold, I thank God. If my pov- 
erty and wretchedness draw upon me contempt, I praise 
and bless the Divine Majesty. In a word, no matter what 
happens to me hard and contrary to nature, whether men 
receive me with compassionate words or drive me ofE with 
harsh epithets, my will is ahvays united with that of God, 
and for all I praise His holy name. 

^''And so, you see, every day is good for me. Not ad- 
versity, not suffering, but our own impatience brings us 
bad days. And why are we impatient, if it is not because 
our will revolts against duty instead of subjecting itself as 
reason requires; instead of praising and glorifying God 
with all our strength? I have, moreover, told you that I 
have never been unhappy; that in the course of my life I 
have never met with an accident; and you yourself may 
judge whether or not I have told you the truth. All es- 
teem themselves happy when their desires are fully satis- 
fied. Now, this happiness is always mine. You express 
surprise; but what I say is true, as you will soon compre- 
hend. You know that nothing happens to us that God 
does not will, and that what He does will is always the 
best for us. Hence it follows that I should esteem my- 
self happy, let God send me what He will. And why 
should I not, since I am thoroughly convinced that what- 
ever happens to me is the best for me ?^' 

Tauler, transported by the deep wisdom of the beggar^ 
implored him to tell him how he had reduced these funda- 
mental maxims to practice. ^^By living with God as a 
child with the most tender of fathers, ^^ answered the beg- 
gar. " I never forget that this All-wise, Almighty Father 
knows well what is best for His children, and that He al- 
ways gives it to them. Things may oppose or flatter na- 
ture, may appear honorable or dishonorable in the eyes of 
men^ sweet or bitter^ conducive or prejudicial to health. 



34 Resignation to the Dispensations of Providence. 

I accept them in the conviction that^ at the present mo-/- 
ment^ they are the very best for me. I feel satisfied that 
nothing could render me happier. In this way^ I have 
peace in all events; and for all^ without exception, I thank 
the dear God!'' 

*^But you told me that you were blessed/' said Tauler. 
" Pray, explain that also." " Yes/' said the beggar, '^sure- 
ly he is blessed whose will is never opposed, whose desires 
are fully satisfied. True, no man can fully attain such 
happiness in this life. That is reserved for the saints in 
heaven, whose union with God's will has reached the high- 
est consummation. But we are called even here below to 
share in it by conforming our will to that of God. No 
obstacle crosses the path of him who wills only what God 
wills; all his wishes accord with the good pleasure of God 
and, therefore, must infallibly be fulfilled; he is, conse- 
quently, blessed. It is this blessedness that I enjoy. The 
will of God constitutes my whole happiness. All that God 
wills so rejoices me that I experience a thousand times 
more pleasure in its fulfilment than another would over 
the highest gratification of his natural inclinations." The 
learned Tauler Avas astounded at the extraordinary wisdom 
of the poor beggar. 

^^My dear child," says the Lord, ^^know that I am your 
Creator, your Saviour, and your God. Your body and soul 
are in My hands; I give you all that you possess, the air 
you breathe, the bread you eat. By My orders the ele- 
ments, the planets, and even the angels serve you. I have 
created heaven and earth for you/ And, more than all 
that, I love you, and for love of you ' I became a worm of 
the earth.' ^ I willed to be born in a stable and to die on 
a cross, and all because of your sins. Now, can you think 
that I would do you any wrong? What more can you ex- 
pect from Me, since I have washed you in My blood, fed 
you with My flesh, and given you My body and soul. My 

1 D^ut. iv. 2 j>s. XX, 7. 



Loving Dispensations of Divi?ie Providence, 35 

life and divinity? What stronger evidence could I give 
you of My loving designs in your regard? 

*^Never^ then^ harbor the thought that I hate you when 
I send you sufferings^ or that I will crush you under their 
weight. Afflictions are a proof of My love, of that love 
which gave you existence. They flow to you from a hand 
that was once nailed to the cross for you. Do you think 
you could find a safer way than that of suffering when I, 
your Lord and your God, chose it as the path to My glory? 
Know you not that men must labor in the sweat of their 
brow, and encounter a thousand dangers in order to ac- 
quire earthly goods? See you not that earthly crowns are 
given only to him who fights courageously and gains the 
victory? If you suffer with Me you shall rejoice with Me; 
if you share My humiliations you shall have part in My 
glory, but not otherwise. 

^^If I knew a higher, a more precious blessing upon earth 
than suffering, I should have given it to you and should 
have chosen it for My own portion in this world. But be- 
cause I know that nothing leads more quickly and securely 
to the highest pinnacle of happiness than the cross, I pre- 
sent it to you with the same love with which I embraced it 
Myself. 

^^It is I who placed those difficulties in your way; there- 
fore, blame no one else, for I alone have so ordained it. 
Complain not of chance. By so doing, you would act 
against your conscience, as you well know nothing happens 
by chance. Accuse not the hostile elements of earth, nor 
yet the stars of heaven, for they are but weak creatures, 
inanimate instruments which My hand wields according to 
My good pleasure. Neither complain of the world, nor of 
the wicked spirits. Their malice can do you no harm, for 
their power is subject to Me; they can exercise it only in 
so far as I permit. To Me alone, therefore, should you 
ascribe whatever evil creatures do you. Your illness, your 
tribulations, your afflictions and contradictions are sent 
you from Him who created you and who has you engraven 



36 Resignation to the Dispensations of Providence, 

in His hands and in His Sacred Heart. ' They are the 
love tokens of My Heavenly Father^ and He shares them 
only with His well-beloved children: they are thorns from 
My crown^ splinters from My holy cross^ which He distrib- 
utes to them as to His favorites; they are the chalice from 
which, in obedience to His will, I, because the first-born 
and dearest of His children^ more than any other drank, 
yea, to the very dregs !'^ 

" Who would not eagerly respond to the call of Divine 
Love that leads him to the marriage of the cross? my 
Father, my Lord and my God, be it done unto me accord- 
ing to Thy divine good-pleasure! To follow Thy inspira- 
tions and guidance shall henceforth be my only aim! I 
will suffer because Thou wiliest it. I will suffer what Thou 
wiliest, although other crosses might be lighter for me. 
Yes, Lord, I submit with perfect docility to Thy holy will. 
' Yes, Father, I praise and bless Thee from my heart, for 
so it hath seemed good to Thee.^^ So great is my confi- 
dence in Thy goodness and infinite love that I can value 
nothing more than what Thou ordainest for me. Thou 
hast created me that I might attain the highest degree of 
happiness, and I am firmly persuaded that all that Thou 
sendest me tends to that end. Even if Thou hadst not 
called me to eternal happiness, I would not follow any 
other will than Thine. Thy will is my whole happiness; 
without it I could taste no joy in heaven or on earth/^ 

Thus do all souls speak that have wholly given them- 
selves to the guidance of Divine Providence. They have 
arrived at the conviction that God^s providence is the 
fundamental principle of all the events of this world; that 
it governs the seasons; that fruitfulness or sterility, sun- 
shine or rain, depends upon it; that it directs from first to 
last, with unlimited power and even in the smallest par- 
ticulars, all human things; that it turns and shapes at 
will even the slightest circumstance of our life. Could 
souls penetrated with these sentiments regard what comes 

1 Is. xUx. 16. 2 Matt. xi. 26. 



Loving Dispensations of Divine Providence, 3 7 

to them from God^s hand as hurtful? ^^God is so good/^ 
says St. Dionysiiis, " that He, who alone needs nothing for 
Himself, yet is constantly producing good for others. He 
is so glorious and magnificent that, through the unattain- 
able and inexpressible fulness of His love, He conducts all 
things to their perfection.^' 

And Philo, the Jew, adds yet more: ''^God will never 
weary of doing good. He allows no occasion for doing so 
to pass unimproved/' What evil then can we apprehend? 
Should we not rather hope for all good? 



CHAPTER II. 

In what we should submit to the Ordinances of 
Divine Providence. 




HE first question is: In what should we submit to 
the will of God? We answer: In all things. Of 
the chief points^ which include all others, we 
shall now take a clearer view. Let us begin with the least. 
We should accept quietly and willingly all kinds of weather^ 
heat and cold^ rain and hail^ storm and tempest. 

Instead of becoming impatient and angry if the weather 
does not suit us^ we should not only be satisfied with it, 
since God sent it; but even if it should particularly incon- 
venience us, we ought, with the three young men m the fiery 
furnace, exclaim: ^^Cold and heat, ice and snow, lightning 
and thunder, praise the Lord, praise and magnify Him for- 
ever. ^^ Inanimate nature honors the Lord unconsciously by 
fulfilling His holy will; we must glorify Him by acquiescing 
intelhgently in all natural events. It often happens that 
that particular state of weather which proves so disagree- 
able to us is most acceptable to others. It thwarts our 
designs, but it may perhaps favor those of our fellow-men. 
And even if this were not so, do we not know that all kinds 
of weather contribute to the glory of God and the accom- 
plishment of His holy will ? Should not this be enough for 
us? In the life of St. Francis Borgia we read a beautiful 
example of conformity to the will ot God. This saint, visit- 
ing a convent of his order, arrived late one night after all 
had retired and were sound asleep, so that he was kept 
waiting at the door in the intense cold during a heavy fall 
of snow. At last, some one heard him knocking and opened 

38 



Submission to the 07'dinances of Providence. 39 

the door, with excuses and a thousand apologies that he 
should have been kept waiting in such weather. The saint 
merely remarked: ^'^ Ah, it was a sweet thought to me that 
it was God who permitted the snow to fall so heavily 
upon me/^ 

Such conformity is so agreeable to God that it often exerts 
a visible influence on temporal matters. This is shown by 
the story of the pious farmer of whom the early Fathers of 
the Desert make mention. His fields always yielded more 
than those of all others. When his neighbors questioned 
him as to how that was, he answered: '^'^Do not wonder at 
the rich harvests of my sowing. I always have just such 
weather as I desire to ripen my crops. ^' Astonished at his 
words, they asked for an explanation. "^^That is easily 
given, ^^ replied the good man; '^^I never wish for any other 
weather than that which God sends; and as I will only what 
pleases Him, He favors me with a harvest as abundant as I 
can desire/^ 

In all public calamities, war, famine, pestilence, etc., 
we should humbly submit to the decrees of God, and in 
sentiments of the deepest humility adore His divine judg- 
anent. However severe the punishments of the Lord may 
appear to us, we must admit that an infinitely good God 
would not let such scourges fall upon us were it not for the 
greater good of His creatures. How many souls have been 
saved by tribulation who, by any other way, might have been 
lost ! How many souls in the hour of affliction turn with 
their whole heart to God, and die in true sentiments of sor- 
row for their sins ! It often happens that what we consider 
a punishment and chastisement of God is a special work of 
grace, an act of His infinite mercy. 

What concerns us personally is, that we must be thoroughly 
penetrated with the consoling thought that all the hairs of 
our head are numbered; that not one falls except by the 
will of our Heavenly Father. This shows that nothing can 
injure us excepting by God's will or permission. In the 
light of this truth, we shall easily understand that, in 



40 Resignation to the Dispensations of Providence, 

seasons of universal dereliction and tribulation, we have no 
more to fear than at any other time; for God can just as 
Avell save us from harm in the midst of these trials, as He 
can plunge us into want and misery when we deem ourselves 
secure in peace and happiness. We have, then, nothing 
else to do than to invoke the grace and favor of God, the Al • 
might}^, and this we can best accomplish by conforming our 
will to His. Let us, then, be always ready to accept every- 
thing promptly and joyfully from the hand of God, for such 
dispositions are powerful over His Sacred Heart. Touched 
by our humble confidence and resignation. He will either 
take from us the afflictions which we so magnanimously 
accept, or turn them to our greater merit and sanctifica- 
tion. We read a remarkable example of this in the history 
of Attila, King of the Huns, who was rightly styled ^^The 
Scourge of God. '^ This fierce invader had entered Gaul and 
vented his barbarous rage against the cities of Elieims, Cam- 
bria, Besan9on, Auxerre, and Langres. He was now about 
to storm Troyes. The inhabitants were seized with terror, 
but their bishop, St. Lupus, was not dismayed. Full of 
confidence in the protection of Heaven, he issued forth in 
full pontificals, preceded by the cross and accompanied by * 
his clergy, to meet the terrible invader. ^^ Who art thou?^^ 
said Lupus in a tone of majesty. ^^I am the Scourge of 
God,^^ haiightily answered Attila. To this the saintly bishop 
replied: ^^The Scourge of God is welcome,^' and he ordered 
the gates to be thrown open to the conqueror. This was 
done; but God, who rules the hearts of men according to 
His good pleasure, set a bridle upon the fierce passions of 
the marauding Huns, and they passed through the city leav- 
ing it and its inhabitants unharmed. And here Eodriguez 
remarks that although Attila was truly the Scourge of God, 
yet He permitted him not to prove such to those who had 
received him in so great submission to the ordinances of His 
providence. 

Parents should recognize God's will both in the num- 
ber and in the sex of the children He gives them, and 



Submissioii to the Ordinances of Providence, 41 

bow to it. As long as lively faith animated men^ tliey 
regarded a large family as a blessings as a gift of Heaven, 
and parents looked upon God as the real Father of their 
children. But now that faith is well-nigh extinct, when 
lives are spent almost without God, family cares are borne 
without thought of Him. Resting in themselves, and not 
seeking help from God, it comes to pass that even the most 
opulent parents dread to see their families increase ; they 
regard their children as a plague which embitters life. 
how differently would one judge were he thoroughly ]Dene- 
trated with the thought that God watches with fatherly 
solicitude over those who, with childlike confidence, remit 
all to His paternal providence! 

Would you have a proof of this? Then, acquiesce with 
all your heart in His holy will, and you will experience 
what St. Paul says of the God of all goodness: ^* And God 
is able to make all grace abound in you : that ye always 
having all-sufficient in all things may abound in every 
good.^^^ 

You must be solicitous for one thing only, and that is to 
train your children as children of God. Let this be the 
aim of all your desires, all your endeavors. You must 
have the courage to renounce every ambitious suggestion ; 
then can you rely with perfect confidence on the tender 
love of your Heavenly Father, be your oft'spring ever so 
numerous. God will Himself watch over them, conduct- 
ing all things to their happiness. The more fully you re- 
nounce w^orldly aims for your children, remitting their 
future into God^s hands, the more wonderfully will He 
provide for them, and spare you all anxiety on their ac- 
count. 

AVe should be resigned to God^s will in temporal losses 
of money and property. In the same disposition we 
must pay all our debts, even when they fall heavily upon 
us and appear unjust ; for example, if called upon to 
make a second payment because of our inability to prove 

1 n Cor. ix. 8. 



42 Resignation to the Dispensations of Providence, 

the first; to liquidate the debts of another whose security 
we are ; to discharge demands of all kinds^ etc. When he 
who IS empowered to claim your money makes use of his 
authority^ it happens by God^s permission. We must say 
to ourselves : " God Himself demands this amount of me.^^ 
And to Him in reality we give it when^ in paying it, we 
have the intention of pleasing Him by submission to His 
holy will. How many graces would fall upon him who 
acts in this spirit I Would you have a faint idea of this ? 
Then represent to yourself two persons : one pays^ in per- 
fect union with the Divine Will^ a sum of money to him 
who has the power^ although, perhaps, not the right to 
exact it ; the other gives spontaneously an alms of equal 
value. You know how many graces and merits are at- 
tached to almsgiving, but understand that the first person 
has yet more merit ; for he sacrifices his money, not in con- 
ferring a positive favor nor as a voluntary charity, but in a 
spirit of conformity to God^s will. The latter is a purer 
offering, one more agreeable to God than even an alms, 
since it is devoid of self-will. If, according to Holy Writ 
and the experience of all ages, almsgiving has brought to 
charitable families the greatest blessings, we may justly 
hope still richer rewards for such compulsory sacrifices. 

We should subject ourselves in poverty and all its in- 
conveniences to the will of God. This will not seem hard 
to us if Ave are rightly penetrated with the thought that 
God watches over us as a father over his children, and that 
He permits us to experience privations only because they 
are good for us. Viewed thus, poverty appears in quite a 
different light. We no longer consider ourselves poor when 
we accept the privations which our needy circumstances 
impose upon us as the salutary prescriptions of our 
Heavenly Physician and Father. 

If a powerful prince subjects his son, who is ill, to a 
plain and sparing diet, would the 3^oung prince think him- 
self poor because he is served with the fare of the poor ? 
Would he be concerned for the future ? Or would an ob- 



Sitbmissiori to the Ordinances of Provide^ice. 43 

server from that fact conceive the idea that the prince was 
in poverty ? Certainly not. And are we not the children 
of the Most High, the co-heirs of Jesus Christ ? AVhat can 
be wanting to us ? Yes^ we can go farther and boldly as- 
sert that upon all that God possesses we have a claim, as 
soon as Ave, by our love and confidence, become His true 
children. Then everything belongs to us alone. But it is 
not good for us to enjoy ell at once; indeed, it is often de- 
sirable to abstain from many things. Privations are neces- 
sary for us; therefore, let us conclude that we shall not 
suffer the want of what is really for our good. Let us be- 
lieve with unswerving confidence that our Almighty Father 
will infallibly give us in the future all that is necessary for 
us, all that can be to our advantage. Has not our Divine 
Saviour Himself said: ''If you being evil, know how to 
give good gifts to your children: how much more will your 
Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask 
Him V^ ^ The doctrine of God's providence is an incon- 
testable truth of our holy faith. Doubts on this point, 
anxiety and vain fears for the future, if not conscientiously 
banished, are criminal and ofi'ensive to Jesus Christ, who 
has left us in several parts of the Holy Scripture most ex- 
plicit promises on this head.^ He has given us His word, 
and this on the single condition that we seek first the 
kingdom of God and His justice, and make this our great- 
est and most important aim. This means that all other 
undertakings should have but this object in view ; and to 
attain it, we should faithfully accomplish* all our other 
duties. On this condition, God relieves us from all other 
care. He Himself assumes our necessities and those of our 
relatives. He will provide for all with so much the more 
liberality as we cast ourselves more confidingly into His 
arms, and make greater efforts to acquire this conformity. 

We should, in prosperity and adversity, honor and 
humiliation, fame and confusion, subject ourselves to 
God's will, accepting everything from His hand ; for, thus 

I Matt. vu. 11. a Matt. Yi, 84-34; Lukexii 36-^3. 



44 Resignation to the Dispensations of Providence, 

received, all will contribute to His glory and the furtherance 
of our eternal salvation. AVhen David fled from Jerusalem 
in order to escape the persecution of his son Absalom, the 
high-priest Sadoc had the Ark of the Covenant carried 
after him, that it might be to the king in his threatened 
danger a protection and shelter, a pledge of his happy re- 
turn. But David said to Sadoc : " Carry back the Ark of 
God into the city : if I should find grace in the sight of 
the Lord, He will bring me back, and will show me both 
it and His tabernacle. But if He shall say to me ' Thou 
pleasest Me not :^ I am ready, let Him do that which is 
good before Him.^^^ And yet there was question here of 
the highest earthly good, — whether he should remain on the 
throne or lead a poor, desolate life. Like David we, also, 
should speak, happen w^hat may. 

We dare not excuse ourselves on the plea that w^e are 
not called to so high, so perfect resignation. God Him- 
self effects the measure of it in us when we do not resist 
His grace. Cassianus tells us of a man, old in years, who 
had studied this truth well. In Alexandria he was once 
surrounded by a whole band of unbelievers, who covered 
him with confusion. They beat him, kicked him, and 
abused him in every possible way. But he remained per- 
fectly calm, silent, and patient as a lamb. When, at last, 
he was insultingly asked what miracles Jesus Christ had 
wrought, he replied: ^'^The miracle which Jesus Christ 
has just now w^orked is, that I, through all your ill-treat- 
ment, have not .become angry ; nay — not even ruffled. ^^ 

Our conformity to the will of God must extend to all 
natural defects of body as well as of soul. For example, 
we must not be troubled, we must not complain, no, not 
even regret, that our memory is not good, our understand- 
ing dull; that we are not so accomplished, possess not so 
solid a judgment as others. Thus to lament would be 
to complain that God has endowed us with little. Have 
we deserved what He has given us ? Is not the little we do 

1 n. Kings XV. 25, 26, 



Submission to the Ordinances of Providence, 45 

possess a free gift of His grace and mercy^ for which we owe 
Him the greatest thanks ? How have we merited that He 
should call us into existence ? We should not only refrain 
from regrets that our gifts are few and small, but we should 
not even wish for more than God has given us. What 
God considers enough should be truly so for us. As the 
workman adapts his tools to his work, so God, according to 
His designs over us, has endowed us intellectually. The 
good use of what we have received, is the one thing neces- 
sary. We should remember that for many it is a great 
blessing to possess but moderate talents; with the little 
that God has given them they will save their soul. Had 
the Creator favored them more, they would perhaps have 
been lost; for great spiritual gifts often engender pride 
and vanity, and become to many the source of damnation. 
''^ You have not so great ability as another,^" says Father 
du Sault; " consequently you are not so learned, you are 
not so fit for different kinds of employment. That afflicts 
you, troubles you, and in secret you yield to vain desires. 
^"^ if I only had what this one or that one has ! If I but 
knew what he knows ! If I were only what he is I '^ Ah, 
my dear friend ! you know not for what you long. With 
the few talents that God has given you you will win heaven; 
had you more, you would precipitate yourself into hell. 
Therefore did God take this into consideration when He 
formed your body and soul, and made you what you are 
and not otherwise. Conform yourself with perfect sub- 
mission to the will of your Heavenly Father who loves you 
so tenderly and so heartily, and who Himself ordains all 
for your greater sanctification. Tell Him how much y9u 
wish to be conformed to Him in all things, and, in union 
with His Divine Son, say with your whole heart: "^^Yes, 
Father; yes, my Lord and my God ! because it is pleasing 
to Thee that I should be poor and despised, I desire to be 
nothing else. What Thou wiliest me to be, is the most 
perfect for me. My will has reached its centre when it is 
united with Thine T 



46 Resignation to the Dispensations of Providence. 

In bodily suffering also we must bow to the will of 
God. He sends us this or that malady; He sends it at 
this or that time; He allows it to continue for such or such 
a period; He couples it with this or that circumstance: in 
all which we must perfectly nnite with the divine ordi- 
nance. We should wish for no change^ but at the same 
time not neglect proper means for recovery^ since God 
Himself wills that we should make use of such remedies. 
When impatient nature revolts, we must repress such emo- 
tions with the words: ^^What! I, a miserable creature! 
Foolhardy that I am, to rise up against my Lord and Crea- 
tor, and to rebel against His ever just and most adorable 
ordinances T^ St. Bonaventure tells us that a religious of 
the Order of St. Francis of Assisi, during one of the extra- 
ordinary and painful illnesses of the saint, said to him in 
all simplicity: " Dear Father, pray God to deal with you a 
little more gently, for it appears to me His hand lies heavily 
upon you.^" At these words the saint groaned aloud and 
said: ^^Did I not know that you have said this from sim- 
plicity, not thinking any evil, I would never look upon 
your face again, since you have been so audacious as to sit 
in judgment on the just punishments of God." Then, in 
spite of his weakness and violent sufferings, he cast himself 
from his poor couch, and, kissing the bare floor of his cell, 
exclaimed: ^'^O my God! I thank Thee for all the 
suffering Thou sendest me. I earnestly implore Thee to 
give me a hundred times more if Thou findest it good. I 
shall be filled with joy when Thou strikest me without 
sparing me in anything, for the fulfilling of Thy holy will 
is the greatest consolation that can be given me." 

St. Ephraim expresses the same sentiments when he 
says: "^^ Uncivilized men know how much their beasts of 
burden are able to carry, and they do not tax them beyond 
their strength. The potter knows how long his clay must 
remain in the oven before it is fit for use. Would it not, 
then, be the greatest foolishness to say that God, infinitely 
loving and infinitely wise, lays too heavy a load upon us^ 



Stibmission to the Ordinances of Providence, 47 

and tries us too long in the fire of 1: )ulation ? Let us, 
therefore, resign the care of ourselves to Him. Our body 
will not be baked longer or harder than is good for us/^ 

But in order not to confound these perfect intentions of 
the saints with those to which all are bound, and thus 
create scruples in timid souls, we shall here remark that 
every suffering, of what kind soever, may be considered in 
two different ways: first, as an effect of the will or the per 
mission of God; and secondly, as an evil for us or for our 
neighbor. From the first standpoint we are bound to sub- 
mit our will to that of God; that is to say, to esteem good 
the suffering that He either sends us or permits to befall 
us. Whoever does not do this opposes Divine Providence, 
who guides and directs all with infinite wisdom. But if 
we regard suffering as an evil, we are not bound to desire 
it either for ourselves or for our neighbor. God commands 
us to submit to His will, "which permits sufferings; but He 
does not require us to desire them. It is often His will 
that we should do all in our power to avert them. It is 
His will, for example, that we make use of all reasonable 
means to recover our health if He has sent us sickness. 
And if we cannot ward off suffering, we are not forbidden 
to grieve over it; yea, we may sometimes even wish for 
death to free us from our pains, if in so doing we do not 
yield to impatience and murmuring. Christian resignation 
should always govern our grief and moderate our tears. So 
long as this kind of submission is dominant there is no 
sin in wishing to die, if only to escape the sorrows of this 
life; or, like Elias and other saints, no longer to witness the 
oppression of the servants of God and the persecution of 
holy Church; or to be freed from spiritual infirmities, the 
source of so many faults; or, finally, to be the sooner ad- 
mitted to the enjoyment of God. 

In the matter of our death and all that relates there- 
to, we should submit to God^s will. Die we must^ ac- 
cording to the" irrevocable decree of the Eternal Judge. 
We shall die on the day, at the hour, in the place and 



48 Resignation to the Dispensatio7is of Providence, 

manner that God pleases. This deaths and its attendant 
circumstances^ we should accept, because they are certainly 
those that will best further God's glory. St. Gertrude was 
ascending a little hill one day with some of her religious. 
The saint missed her footing, slipped, and fell. Lovingly 
serene, she arose, exclaiming: '^'O my Jesus! how truly 
happy I should have been if, by this fall, I had been 
brought sooner to Thee ! ^^ Her companions, struck by her 
words, asked the saint whether she did not fear to die 
without the last Sacraments. She answered: *^With all 
my heart. I certainly desire to receive them. But I prefer 
the will of God even to this consolation; for I believe that 
Ave cannot better or more securely prepare for death than by 
resigning ourselves in all things to God's will. Therefore, 
I desire no other death than that by which God may call 
me to Himself, and I await it with unshaken confidence, 
knowing that He, in His mercy, will be with me at my last 
hour and direct its every circumstance.'' 

We should submit to the will of God when He re- 
moves from us the exterior helps we may have had toward 
our sanctification. For example, you lose a spiritual guide, 
or a friend who till now has directed you, urged you on to 
good, and encouraged you. It seems to you that without 
him you can no longer tread the narrow path securely. 
This fear has some foundation. In truth, you certainly are 
not in a condition to proceed alone. Help is indispensable; 
therefore. Providence gave you this friend and guide. But 
does He love you less now that He has deprived you of this 
support than when He gave it you ? Is He not still your 
Father ? Could such a Father abandon His children ? He 
has called you to a certain preordained degree of perfec- 
tion. You have already passed over a part of the way, and 
the guide whose loss is so painful to you has, indeed, led 
you till now happily and safely onward. But who can 
assure you that he would continue to receive grace to render 
him capable of conducting you farther on your spiritual 
journey? And did not Christ say to His Apostles: ''It is 



Stibmission to the Ordinances of P^^ovidence, 49 

expedient to you that I go; for if I go not;, the Paraclete 
will not come to you^^ ? ^ Can you after these words con- 
sider the loss of your friend or guide^ however excellent or 
holy, a spiritual disadvantage? But you answer me: "^^ Who 
knows whether this loss is not in punishment of my un- 
faithfulness ? ^^ I will admit it to be so, but this does not 
change the matter; for the paternal rod of correction is 
raised for the good of the docile child. Would you disarm 
the chastising hand of God ? Would you, as it were, touch 
the heart of your Heavenly Father and constrain Him to 
overwhelm you with new graces ? Then accept His chastise- 
ments generously; and as a reward of your confident res- 
ignation to His holy will, this God of all goodness will give 
you either a more enlightened guide, or He Himself, in 
His infinite goodness and mercy, will be your friend 
and director. He will send to you, as to His Apostles, 
the Holy Spirit. His light will enlighten you, and the 
unction of His grace will invest you with wonderful 
strength. 

Again, let us suppose that you have all your life been de- 
voted to prayer and good works; your daily devotional ex- 
ercises are the food and support of your soul. But illness 
forces you to interrupt them; you can no longer assist at 
holy Mass daily, — no, not even on Sunday: you must abstain 
from Holy Communion; and soon your weakness will be- 
come such that it Avill be impossible for you to pray. Do 
not complain, pious soul; you are called to the honor of 
eating with your Divine Master a food of which many others 
know not. ^ By it you will profit, and your illness will prove 
a sanctifying remedy. Hear what the Lord said to His 
disciples: ^^ My meat is to do the will of Him that sent 
Me.^^ ^ The same food is now offered to you. Ponder well 
that by it alone it is given us to live for heaven. Prayer 
itself loses its efficacy when not fructified and animated by 
this heavenly food. Our Divine Master has expressly said: 
"^ot every one, that saith to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter 

1 John xvi. 7. 2 john jy 33^ 3 john iv. 34. 



50 Resignation to the Dispensations of Providence. 

into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of 
My Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the king- 
dom of heaven/^ ^ It is God who sends you this illness. 
He Himself dispenses you from your spiritual exercises; or 
rather, He forbids you to perform them. Give yourself, 
then, no anxiety about them; direct your whole attention 
to what He now, requires of you instead of them. He 
desires that you should in all things, renouncing your own, 
learn to fulfil His holy will. For the future, this should be 
your daily bread; hence. He gives you so many occasions 
for practising it. How many inconveniences, how many 
sacrifices, does not your illness impose upon you! It 
thw^arts you in your plans, it increases expense, medicines 
are distasteful, imprudence injures you, and neglect annoys 
you; in short, a thousand little things give you pain. How 
many occasions here upon which you can say to yourself: 
^^God so wills it!^^ Make it a duty to allow none of 
these opportunities to pass unimproved, for then your ill- 
ness will unite you most intimately and closely with Him 
who said: ^^For whosoever shall do the will of God, he is 
My brother and My sister and mother.^ ^ 

Again, a great feast is near. You are earnestly prepar- 
ing for it. Your fervor and devotion appear to you already 
a foretaste of the spiritual consolations that await you on 
the day itself. The feast comes, but finds you no longer the 
same. Instead of pious feelings and holy aspirations, you ex- 
perience naught but dryness the most desolating; you are not 
even capable of conceiving a good thought. Do not be dis- 
tressed. Act in this case as in others. Make no nervous 
exertions to change such a state. God sends you this cross. 
You know that whatever comes from Him is good; and that 
to such as receive it like little children, it is beneficial and 
rich in blessings. Take quietly from His hand, also, the 
state of your soul. KecoUect yourself as well as you can in 
His holy presence, submit to Him as the sick man to the 
physician from whom he expects his perfect cure, and 

1 Matt. vii. 21. 2 Mark iii. 35. 



Submission to the Ordinances of Providence. 5 1 

be firmly persuaded that no spiritual consolation could be 
so salutary to you as such dryness and desolation borne 
resignedly. Not our feelings^ but our good-will makes our 
soul susceptible of God^s graces. An act of the will very 
frequently exerts no influence upon the feelings^ but that 
does not render it the less meritorious before God. Even 
were the feelings and sentiments in open opposition to 
the will^ it does not matter so long as the latter disap- 
proves it. Never forget^ therefore^ that the effect of prayer 
depends not upon the feelings. This applies^ also^ to the 
workings of God in the human soul. They are noiseless 
and almost unobserved. As the nourishment we borrow 
from perishable food assimilates itself to the whole body, 
supporting and increasing life's exhausted strength in all 
its members, without any interior perception of how this is 
done, so also does the Body of Jesus Christ act upon us. 
This heavenly Food, which is given to us for the nourishing 
and strengthening of our soul, acts secretly and imper- 
ceptibly in our interior. * But w^e, alas! desire to feel. As 
soon as this feeling, this interior satisfaction, is wanting, we 
at once become discouraged. We seek to force, as it were, 
a return of those sweet sentiments; and for that end, with 
the greatest pains and spiritual exertions, we make long 
hours of prayer. But such a mode of proceeding does not 
render us more susceptible of the grace of God. On the 
contrary, it hinders His operations, since it agitates and 
occupies the soul too much. St. Catharine of Sienna once 
asked Our Lord why He had so freely revealed Himself to 
the patriarchs and prophets of the Old Law^ also to the 
first Christians, and why He so rarely did it now. Jesus 
answ^ered her: ^^ The saints of the early ages were not ab- 
sorbed in self, were not full of self-love. They came to Me 
as true disciples. They walked in My holy presence, and 
were always ready to hear and to follow My words and in- 
spirations; they allowed themselves to be formed, to be 
purified like gold in the crucible; their souls were before 
Me like canvas under the hand of the painter. I could 



52 Resignation to the Dispensations of Providence, 

write freely the commandment of love on their heart. But 
in the present day Christians wish to say everything, do 
everything themselves. They speak as if I neither saw^ nor 
heard them. They are always so busy^ so excited, that they 
will not permit me to act in their soul/^ In His Gospel the 
Lordw^arns ns of this error when He says: ^^ And when you 
are praying, speak not much, as the heathens; for they 
think that in their much-speaking they may be heard. Be 
not you therefore like to them; for your Father knoweth 
what is needful for you, before you ask Him. ^\ ^ 

We should bear with submission to the holy wdll the 
sufferings w^hich we have drawn upon ourselves by our 
sins. For example, you are, in consequence of some exces- 
sive indulgence, indisposed, or even seriously ill ; or you 
have made some extravagant expenditures ; you have squan- 
dered your money in dress and vanity ; hence, you must 
now impose some privations upon yourself. Your negli- 
gence in the fulfilment of your duties, your imprudence, 
your slanders, your anger, your sulky disposition, or your 
rude character, bring upon you disagreeable mortifications, 
prejudicial losses, change of circumstances, humiliations, 
affronts to which are further added spiritual troubles. 
You reproach yourself with your conduct, you are dis- 
tressed, dejected ; your mind is full of troubled thoughts ; 
you are harassed by interior disgust and anguish whose 
wearisome attacks you cannot shake off. God has not 
willed your sin ; but for your owai good, He does wall that 
it should bear these painful consequences. Take them, 
therefore, from His hand, and be persuaded that humble 
submission is the surest means not only to regain the favor 
of God but even to increase it in your regard. Then your 
faults will cease to be detrimental to you. They wall be- 
come, so to say, a memorial of your perseverance in the 
service of God. Let us sujDpose that you wish to make a 
journey on foot to Rome. But the roads are bad, you are 
weak, your sight is bad, or you are heedless, and you stum- 

1 Matt. vi. 7, 8. 



Submission to the Ordinances of Providence, 53 

ble at almost every step. Yet^ in spite of all this, you do 
not lose courage. You rise without delay and, instead of 
wasting time in grumbling and fruitless anxiety^ you push 
onward, deter miiied to continue your journey to the eternal 
city cost what it may. In the end you will succeed. Is 
not your constancy so much the greater and heroic the 
more obstacles you have had to overcome, and the more 
frequently you have had to rise ? It is precisely thus in 
the service of God. 

We should resign oui^selves to Grod^s will in interior 
sufferings, temptations, doubts, darkness, aridities, desola- 
tion, and in all other difficulties of the spiritual life. To 
whatever source we may ascribe them, God is and He ever 
will be their first cause. You think, for example, that 
these sufferings come from yourself. No ; it is either the 
ignorance of your understanding, the sentiments of your 
heart; your unbridled imagination, or one of your corrupt 
inclinations, that is the source of them. Mount higher 
and behold whence this trial cotaes. Does not the cause 
lie in the w^ill of God ? He did not endow you with greater 
perfection. He subjected you to all such imperfections 
and imposed upon you for your sanctification the obliga- 
tion of bearing patiently all the evil consequences thereof, 
until He Himself shall put an end to your sufferings. If 
God would enlighten your mind with only one ray of His 
heavenly light, if He would pour only one drop of the dew 
of His grace into your heart, you would immediately be 
strengthened and consoled. Perhaps you imagine that 
your interior sufferings came from the Evil One ? Even so, 
you must regard God as the first cause of them. The his- 
tory of holy Job proves that the devil can do nothing 
against us if God does not give him the power. When 
the temptation to hatred and envy raged in the heart of 
Saul, the Holy Scripture says he was tormented by an evil 
spirit from the Lord. How can this spirit be evil if it 
comes from the Lord? And if it is evil, how can it come 
from the Lord? It is evil through the malicious intention 



54 Resignation to the Dispensations of Providence, 

of the devil;, who lies in wait for men to compass their de- 
struction ; and yet it comes from the Lord^ because He 
permits the snares of the Evil One to tend to our salvation. 
But still more^ our faith, as well as the teaching of the 
saints, tells us that God often withdraws Himself all at 
once from the soul. His lights, His consolations, the sen- 
sible effects of His grace cease, and this from designs that 
correspond to His infinite wisdom and goodness. How 
many lukewarm souls, negligent in the fulfilment of their 
duties, in the days of their interior anguish and affliction 
have entered into themselves, and have, in desolation and 
dereliction, regained their former fervor ! How many 
others have in their interior sufferings found the occasion 
and the means of putting into practice the most sublime 
virtues ! To what perfection and heroism did not the vir- 
tues of a St. Teresa, a St. Francis de Sales, a St. Ignatius 
attain through such trials ! Wonderful ways of Divine 
Providence Avho, w^ith infinite love and care, watches over 
the welfare of His children whom He appears to desert, in 
order to rouse some from tepidity, and preserve and 
strengthen others in the spirit of humility, self-denial, con- 
fidence in God, prayer, and submission ! Therefore, let us 
not be confounded if sometimes our soul is hard pressed 
by interior suffering. Let us act like a sick person who 
consults the doctor, makes use of the remedies prescribed, 
and then calmly waits till it pleases God to restore his 
health. 

Blosius tells us of a holy man wiio was continually 
harassed by temptations, desolation, and aridities, but who 
well understood the value of his interior pains. Once, 
Avhen overwhelmed by trouble, he began to weep. Angels 
appeared and offered him consolation ; but he declined 
their solace, saying : '^\ desire no relief. My greatest and 
only consolation is the fulfilment of the Divine Will I^^ 

This same Blosius relates, also, that Jesus Christ once 
appeared to St. Bridget and asked the cause of her sadness 
and dejection. The saint said: ''Lord, I am tormented 



Submission to the Ordinances of Provideitce, 55 

by evil thoughts and I tremble at Thy judgments." The 
Saviour replied: ^^ Contrary to My will, you once took 
pleasure in the vanities of the world ; therefore it is just 
that you should now be tempted against your will with 
vain and evil thoughts. It is also right that you should 
tremble at My judgments ; but, at the same time, you must 
always confide in Me, your Lord and your God. Be firmly 
persuaded that the evil thoughts that one resists and ban- 
ishes according to his strength, serve the soul here in this 
life as a purgatory. They afford also ample opportunity to 
accumulate merits for heaven. But if you cannot banish 
the evil thought, despise it and wait patiently till it departs 
of itself." 

Many persons in interior suffering applied to Tauler, 
and he has left us the advice which he gave them. When 
such a one explained to him his lamentable condition, his 
incessant spiritual trials, Tauler would say : ^^ All is going 
on well. That of which you complain is precisely the 
greatest grace from G-od." If the penitent argued that, on 
the contrary, he believed his sufferings to be a punishment 
for his sins, the skilful director would say : ^^Be it on ac- 
count of your sins or not^ believe that this cross comes to 
you from God. Embrace it lovingly therefore. Thank 
the Lord and resign yourself wholly into His hands." If, 
finally, some one told him that he felt interiorly consumed 
by dryness and vexation^ he answered : ^^ Suffer patiently, 
and you will receive more grace than if you now experienced 
the most tender and fervent devotion. " 

We are now at the last and, perhaps, most difl&cult 
and sensitive point : namely, that we should desire even 
virtue itself, grace, and eternal glory only in the measure 
in which God wills to give them to us, and not wish 
for more than He grants. Our sole aim should be to 
attain by fidelity the degree of perfection for which we are 
destined. It is not given to all to rise to the same height 
of glory. For example, it is certain that, in spite of our 
conscientious co-operation with grace, we can never become 



56 Resignation to the Dispensations of Providence, 

so pure^ humble^ and perfect as the Blessed Virgin. Who 
could attain to the grace and blessedness of the Apostles? 
Who could reach the virtue and perfect holiness of St. 
Joseph? Or who could equal St. John the Baptist, him 
whom the Divine Saviour Himself called the greatest 
among the children of men ? In this respect, as in all 
others, we must submit unreservedly to the will of God, 
that the word of the Lord may be verified in us : " But 
thou shalt be called : My pleasure in her I " ' When we 
either hear or read that God led souls in a short time to 
the highest perfection, and endowed them with extraordi- 
nary graces, we must watch over our heart, that no violent 
desire for the same favors be aroused in us, and that our 
perfect conformity to God^'s will suffer no disturbance 
thereby. Yes, on such occasions we should all the more 
closely adhere to the most amiable will of the Lord and, in 
sentiments of unlimited resignation, say to Him : '"^ my 
God! I praise and extol Thee that Thou hast imparted 
Thyself, hast revealed Thyself to these chosen souls with so 
much love and generosity. The honor Thou dost confer 
upon them is so great that no man is able to estimate it 
worthily ; but I value the fulfilment of Thy adorable will 
above all the illuminations, sweetnesses, and extraordinary 
graces of Thy saints. I prefer it to all, and therefore, I 
implore of Thee but one grace : viz., that I may have no 
will of my own, that it may be lost in Thine, entirely trans- 
formed into Thine ! Others may implore a thousand graces. 
I shall for the future know but one prayer : Grant that I 
may always follow Tby direction, correspond to Thy de- 
signs, and fulfil Thy will ; that I may become a perfect in- 
strument laboring for Thy honor. Do in me and through 
me, for time and eternity, all that Thou dost will V^ 

Eesignation such as this is so pleasing to God that, on 
account of it. He called David a man according to His own 
heart : " I have,^^saysHe, ^^'^ found a man according to My 
heart who shall always do My will.^* ^ And in fact, David^s 

1 Is. Ixii. 4. ^ I. Kings xiii. 14. 



Submission to the Ordinances of Providence, 57 

heart became in the hands of God like soft wax^ which un- 
resistingly receives whatever form is given it. ^"^ My heart 
is ready, Lord ! my heart is ready V^ ' 

It is good to commit to memory some passages of Holy 
Scripture with which, from time to time, to give expression 
to this virtue. For instance, ^^ Lord, what wilt Thou that I 
should do ? '''' ^ Behold, I am ready to do Thy will in all 
things ! '^'^ I am Thine, ^^ ^ dispose of me according to Thy 
good pleasure. ^^I seek not my own will/""* ^^ My meat 
is to do the will of Him who sent me, that I may perfect 
Hiswork.^^ ' "^"^ Yea, Father, for so hath it seemed good in 
Thy sight. ^^^ ^'^Thy will be done on earth as it is in 
heaven ! '' ' Our Saviour Himself once recommended to 
St. Catherine of Genoa to dwell particularly on this peti- 
tion of the Our Father. But if on account of the revolt of 
our inordinate inclinations we find it difficult to fulfil God^s 
will, let us cry out with David: '^'^ Shall not my soul be 
subject to God?'^ From Him have I received all good 
things. ^^ From Him is my salvation. ^^ I will obey His 
commands ^^for He is my God and my Lord,^^ even if my 
perverse nature refuses to do what He commanded me. 
^^ He is my helper I shall not be moved/^ ^ Or say with 
Our -Lord in His death agony: ^^ Father, not my will but 
Thine be done."^^ Leo the Great, commenting on these 
words, says: ^^ These words proceeding from the mouth 
of Christ, our Divine Head, are the salvation of all His 
members. They have instructed the faithful, animated 
the confessors, and crowned the martyrs. Ye children of 
the Church, who have been redeemed at so high a price 
and, without any merit on your part, have been justified, 
attend to these words ; and when the tempter presses you 
hard, let them serve you as your best buckler, that you 
may conquer your perverse nature and endure tribulation 
with courage ! '^ 

1 Ps. Ivi. 8. 2 Acts ix. 6. 3 Ps. cxviii. 94. 

4 John V. 30. 5 John iv. 34. « Matt. xi. 26. 

7 Matt. vi. 10. 8 Ps. Ixi. 2. » Luke xxii. 42. 



58 Resignation to the Dispensations of Providence. 

Let us add in concluding this chapter that, in conformity 
with the will of God^ we should also accept the interior 
struggles which such submission costs. The will is often 
firmly determined to unite itself to ^ that of God, and it 
really does so ; but the mind is busy with all kinds of 
thoughts as to what may happen. For example, one says 
to himself, ^'^ If I should now become ill ; if I should re- 
ceive that appointment, if I should be sent hence — Would 
this be good or not for me ? Then, I must abandon this 
plan, I cannot carry out this design. It would be possible 
for me to do this or that according to my inclinations,'^ etc. 
But we must cut short such reflections. We have for the 
love of God sacrificed to Him our will, and we no longer 
possess the liberty to choose or to reject. In the same 
spirit of love let us offer to Him our understanding, gen- 
erously renouncing all useless reflections, plans, and judg- 
ments ; let us leave ourselves unreservedly to Divine Provi- 
dence. 

But for our consolation be it said, that the struggles and 
opposition of our disorderly nature against all that costs it 
pain, is no hindrance to our perfect submission to the 
divine will. Let us lay to heart the words of St. Francis 
de Sales : " When things go not according to our liking, 
although we would naturally wish them to be otherwise, 
yet we must with our whole heart submit ; for in this con- 
sists the victory.^^ 



CHAPTER III/ 

Why and How We Should Resign Ourselves to 
God's Will. 




HIS doctrine of Divine Providence is one of the 
most consoling truths of revelation ; for it as- 
sures us that, sin excepted, nothing happens on 
earth without God^s willing it. But the richest conso- 
lations are founded on this, that the sufferings and adversi- 
ties which God sends us, are for our good, our salvation. 
We do not readily perceive this. God loves to accomplish 
His designs by means very different from those suggested 
by human prudence. This is proved by many examples 
which show how, in purely .natural occurrences. He has 
allowed what seemed to be misfortunes to turn to our great- 
est good. Joseph is sold, dragged into slavery, and thrown 
into prison ; he bewailed an apparent misfortune, but it 
proved afterward to be the foundation of his happiness. It 
was his sufferings that raised him to the steps of the Eygp- 
tian throne. Saul lost his father^s asses ; in vain did he 
seek them far and near, vexed, no doubt, over time lost and 
fruitless trouble. But who ever reproached himself so un- 
reasonably as Saul ? For, through God's wise guidance, 
his little vexation served to bring him to the prophet, who, 
by the command of God, was to anoint him king of his 
people. How great will our shame be, when we shall ap- 
pear before the face of God and clearly recognize the loving 
intention with which He sent this or that cross, and for 
which we have been so ungrateful! '^'^I have,^^ says one, 
^^so deeply mourned the death of my only son cut off in 
the springtime of his years."' Ah ! had he but lived some 

1 This and the following chapter are taken from the works of Father de la 
ColombiSre. 

59 



6o Resignation to the Dispensations of Providence. 

months, some years longer, he would have fallen by the 
hand of an enemy and died in mortal sin. ^'\ cannot con- 
sole myself that this matrimonial affair came to naught/^ 
But had God permitted it to take place, sorrow and misery 
would have been your fate. The illnesses against which 
you have so often repined have, perhaps, prolonged your 
existence thirty or forty years. You must thank that hu- 
miliation which cost you so many tears, for securing your 
eternal salvation. Were it not for the loss of that sum of 
money, j-our soul would, perhaps, have been irretrievably 
lost. Why, then, do you grieve ? Why vex yourself? God 
has taken upon Himself the guidance of our destiny ; and 
yet we burden ourselves with it ! We confide our health 
and our life to a physician whom we consider very skilful. 
He prescribes a painful operation; he cauterizes, he ampu- 
tates, and we let him do all that he will. We even thank 
him and reward him, for we know that he would not im- 
pose such suffering if it were' not necessary. Shall we re- 
fuse to God the confidence that we place in man? Shall 
we doubt His wisdom or fear His leading us astray ? 

If we knew all that God knows, then we should certainly 
will all that He wills, and with burning tears implore Him 
for those sufferings which we now so earnestly pray Him to 
avert. For this reason, the Eedeemer says to all in the 
persons of the two sons of Zebedee: ^^0 ye blind men ! I 
have compassion on your ignorance, — you know not what 
you ask.'' ' Leave yourselves in My hands. I know better 
than you what is necessary. If I had in the past granted 
your petitions and yielded to your desires, you would long 
since have been irretrievably ruined. 

But would you be convinced that, in all that God permits 
to happen to you. He has only your real good and eternal 
happiness in vieAV ? Recall, then, what He has already done 
for you with all its attendant circumstances. Heavy trials 
now afflict you — remember that He who sends you this sor- 
row passed His whole life in poverty and suffering, to 

1 Matt. XX. 22. 



Resigning Onr selves to God's Will. 6i 

deliver you from eternal damnation. He has placed one of 
His angels at your side^ to guide and protect you in all your 
ways ; He prays for you upon the altar without ceasing ; He 
offers Himself daily thousands of times for you in the Holy 
Sacrifice; and He knows no greater joy than to unite Him- 
self intimately with you. What base ingratitude, after so 
many proofs of love, to doubt whether He visits you for 
your good or for your prejudice! ^^But His blows are 
hard, He inflicts deep wounds, and His hand rests so heavi- 
ly upon me.^^ What have you to fear from a hand that was 
pierced for you on the cross? '^'He leads me by steep, 
thorny paths. ^^ Thoughtless creature ! If there is no other 
way by which to reach heaven, would you rather be eter- 
nally lost than tread it ? Has not your Lord, for love of you, 
gone before you on the road of suffering? " He offers me 
a chalice full of bitterness. ^^ That is true, but consider 
that He who presents it is your Saviour. How could He, 
who so tenderly, so constantly, who eternally loves, deter- 
mine to deal harshly with you, if it be not for your highest 
good and even urgent necessity? This thought alone should 
stimulate us not only to accept willingly the apparently in- 
supportable dispensations of Divine Providence, but also to 
love them and to resign ourselves perfectly to the will of 
God. 

A holy man once said: ^^Who could force me to do any- 
thing against my will? For such a step it would be neces- 
sary for my adversary to do violence to God Himself; since 
so long as God^s will is accomplished, I am free, as I will 
nothing but what He wills. Is it His will that I should be 
sick? Then, will sickness be more agreeable to me than 
health. Does He will me to be poor ? Then, under no con- 
sideration would I be rich. Shall I become an outcast among 
men ? If such be God^s will, I shall be satisfied, nor shall I 
seek celebrity excepting in the contempt of the world. Shall 
I live here or there ? Shall I pass my days in retirement or 
in the turmoil of the world ? Shall I die in the flower of 
my years or in old age? I cannot say, in truth, which of 



62 Resignation to the Dispensations of Providence. 

these I should prefer to do. But as soon as Grod makes 
known His choice of them, as soon as He shall signify which 
are according to His Heart, then shall my own heart incline 
to His will ; then shall I find real happiness/^ 

But is this perfection merely an unattainable ideal, con- 
jured up by our imagination? or can men really be found 
so indifferent as to look with equal calmness upon happiness 
or unhappiness, fortune or misfortune? Ah! yes, there 
are such. I myself know souls who in sickness and health, 
in poverty and riches, are ever contented. They even pre- 
fer indigence and suffering to abundance and happiness. 

For the rest, there is nothing truer than what I have still 
to say: The more we conform to the will of God, the more 
freely Grod will anticipate our desires. As soon as we aim 
at obeying Him, He is willing to fulfil our wishes. He not 
only hears our prayers, but anticipates them. He penetrates 
the deepest recesses of our h^art and discovers the hidden 
desires for love of Him suppressed, all of which He fulfils 
more richly than we could dare to hope. In a w^ord, the 
happiness of a soul truly resigned to God is constant, un- 
changing, eternal. No fear disturbs the tranquillity that no 
accident can affect. I regard such a soul as a man set upon 
a rock in the midst of the sea of this world. Fearless he 
beholds the billows dashing below him; he numbers them 
one by one, and smiles to see them breaking harmlessly at 
his feet. Whether the waves dance in the bright sunshine, 
or leap and roar and foam in the storm; whether they rise 
upon his right or upon his left, he remains unshaken, for 
the rock upon which he stands is firm and immovable. 

How can we reach this blessed conformity? Tlie first 
step toward it is the constant, steady practice of it. As 
great opportunities are rare, the whole secret of its acquisi- 
tion lies in this, that w^e make use of little daily occurrences. 
Fidelity to this, will soon put us in the way of bearing even 
the greatest misfortunes with unwavering firmness. Every 
one of us daily experiences a thousand little unwelcome 
vexations. Now it is something purely foreign to us, again 



Resigning Ojti^selves to God's Will, 63 

the cause arises from ourselves or from another. Our whole 
life is an unbroken chain of such little annoyances. From 
them spring a thousand involuntary emotions of aversion, 
envy, impatience, and fear, a thousand passing vexations 
and trifling alarms, which for the moment, at least, disturb 
the peace of tlie soul. For example, some expression escapes 
your lips which, on the instant, you would gladly recall; a 
sharp, cutting word is addressed to you; you are served 
badly or slowly; a child allows you no rest; a troublesome 
visitor detains you; you are inadvertently pushed or jostled; 
a passing vehicle bespatters you; the weather does not suit 
you; your work does not succeed according to your liking; 
some article gets broken; your dress-is torn or soiled, and 
so on. Certainly in such trifles you cannot practise heroic 
virtue; but if you wish, you can by them attain the highest 
perfection. A soul that is faithful and persevering to ac- 
cept these little sufferings from the hand of Divine Provi- 
dence and to make an offering of them, not only lays up 
for herself many rich merits ; not only arrives at close union 
with God; but in a short time she will be able courageously 
to endure the most trying and painful events of life. 

This so easy and yet so useful practice, one so pleasing to 
God, is the first means to arrive at union with His will. In 
addition to this, we may make use of another means. God 
does not send heavy tribulations daily, but daily we can say 
to Him that we are ready to accept them when it pleases 
Him. If God should take your husband, your son ; if He 
permit that this lawsuit, this investment be lost, then you 
must summon all the strength of your soul to bear so heavy 
a stroke. But first of all accept His ordinances, for you 
know not what God has hidden therein. Eesign yourself 
to all that He may send you; renounce in His holy presence 
every wish, every desire, your possessions, your health, your 
ambition to increase or to preserve your good name ; protest 
to Him that you are ready to sacrifice all to Him. In the 
morning consider what evil may occur to you in the course 
of the day. Perhaps you may receive the news of a ship- 



64 Resignation to the Dispensations of Provide7tce. 

Avreck^ or a conflagration^ or a bankruptcy; you may, per- 
haps, be insulted in an unheard of manner, brought to 
confusion on the most sensitive point. Death may rob you 
of what is nearest and dearest to you in this world; or you 
may yourself die a sudden, or a violent death. Prepare, 
then, in advance for all such possible sufferings, in case 
God should permit them. Force your will to unite in this 
offering and desist not in your efforts, till it is perfectly 
ready to will all that God wills and desire nothing that He 
does not will. 

In this practice there is, however, a distinction to be 
made between the suffering that we can very naturally 
foresee, whose possibility stares us in the face, as it were, 
and those almost impossible ones that we conjure up of 
ourselves. As to what relates to the first, it is in case of 
necessity always good to accept it in advance. Should one 
at the moment not feel the courage, let him calmly say tc 
himself: '^ AYhen this trial comes upon me, I hope to receive 
with it from Divine Goodness the graces necessary to 
endure it courageously and resignedly. However weak I 
now feel I am resolved, with the help of grace, to submit 
entirely in the hour of trial to the will of my Lord and 
Creator. ^^ 

Quite different is it with the sufferings we purposely rep- 
resent to ourselves, conjure up, so to speak, in order to 
accustom ourselves to their acceptance. This practice is 
not always without danger, and is not good for all souls. 
It may be very useful to those who have made progress 
enough in conformity to God's will to look forward to 
heavy tribulations without fear or agitation. But for souls 
that do not yet possess sufficient strength firmly to gaze 
upon the cross, truly it is" foolhardy to challenge an enemy 
whom they are too weak to encounter, and from whose as- 
saults Providence has spared them. Jesus Christ warns us 
against disquieting cares for the future. They who, on 
account of their weakness and imperfection, cannot look 
into the future without alarm, should turn away their eyes 



Resigning Ourselves to God's Will. 65 

from it and throw themselves blindly and unreservedly into 
the arms of Divine Providence. To them especially applies 
what Tenelon so beautifully says: 

''The cross that we ourselves make by yielding to gloomy 
forebodings of the future comes not from God. On the 
contrary, we tempt Him when we anticipate His plans and 
substitute our own foresight for His Divine Providence. 
Our own false wisdom always bears bitter fruit. God per- 
mits it thus, in order to shame us when we withdraw from 
His paternal guidance. The future is not ours. Who 
knows whether it ever will be ours ? If so, it may turn 
out quite differently from what we imagined. Let us, 
then, close our eyes to what God hides from us, and, in His 
unfathomable decrees, yet withholds. Let us adore with- 
out seeing, be silent, and remain in peace I" 

The cross of the present moment always brings with it 
the grace necessary to render it more easy to bear. In it 
we recognize the hand of God, which is actually felt. But 
the cross that our anxious conjectures concerning the future 
construct, is not in conformity with the divine plan. When 
we court it, we go beyond the will of God. We see then 
only the cross, and not the grace that makes it light and 
bearable. This anxious peering into the future is an infi- 
delity that subtracts grace. Hence it is that everything 
connected with such a cross is so bitter, so heavy, so dark, 
so hopeless; and the soul that toiled through curiosity for 
the forbidden fruit, finds interiorly only restlessness and 
death, without consolation. We come to this when we do 
not trust God unreservedly, when we presume to search into 
the mysteries of which He is so jealous. " Sufficient for 
the day is the evil thereof, '' ' says Our Lord Himself. Daily 
sufferings contribute to our sanctification when we allow 
God to act. Who are we, to ask Him: ''Why hast Thou 
done this?^^ He is the Lord, and that suffices. He is the 
Lord, let Him do all that seems good to Him. He raises 
up or casts down. He chastises or comforts. He wounds or 



1 Matt. vi. 34. 



66 Resignation to the Dispensations of Providence. 

heals. He kills or restores to life; and He is at all times the 
Lord. We are only the work of His power, a mere play- 
ball in His hand. What matters all else, provided He be 
glorified and His holy will accomplished in ns? Let ns 
give up self, renounce every selfish aspiration; then shall 
the will of the Lord that reveals itself in all things be our 
abiding consolation even when such resignation is to our 
own cost. The resistance of men, their inconstancy, yes, 
even their injustice, will then appear to us as the working 
of the unchangeable wisdom, Justice, and goodness of God. 
Everywhere Ave shall see but God alone, since He conceals 
Himself under the material forms of this world, under the 
weakness of blind and perverse men. 

Then shall the deceitful figure of this world, passing 
away like a shadow, be to us a mirror reflecting the splendor 
of God in order to His praise. But let us return to the 
real trials and sufferings of life. 

AVhen misfortune overtakes you, lose no time in vain 
complaints against creatures or destiny; but fly at once to 
the Divine Master. Cast yourself at His feet, and implore 
the grace to carry your cross bravely. A man, dangerously 
wounded, but still possessing consciousness, will not pursue 
his murderer; he will have immediate recourse to a physi- 
cian who can heal his wound. And will you, in your suf- 
ferings, seek first the cause of them ? If you do, you will 
have to turn to God, for He is the author. 

Go, then, to God; but go promptly, go straight to Him. 
Let this be your first impulse. Carry back to Him, so to 
say, the dart with which He has wounded you; take Him 
the rod with which He has scourged you. Kiss a thousand 
times the hands of your crucified Saviour, those hands that 
have struck you, that have given you pain. Repeat often 
what He Himself exclaimed in the height of His Passion: 
" Father, not My will, but Thine be done V^ ^ I praise and 
thank Thee a thousand times that Thy will is being fulfilled 
in me. Were it in my power to oppose Thee, yet would I 

i Luke xxii. 4:^. 



Reszgnmg Ott7^ selves to God's Will, 67 

freely submit. The sufferings Thou sendest me, I accept 
with all their concomitants and all their consequences. I 
do not complain either of the pain, of the persons who have 
caused it, of the place, of the time, or of the manner of 
their visitation. I am assured that Thou hast ordered all 
well, and I would rather die than oppose Thy holy will even 
in the least particular. Thy will be done I Yes^ my God, 
may this will to-day and always, in time and in eternity, be 
fulfilled in me I Thy will be done on earth, as it is in 
heaven. 




CHAPTER IV. 

Of the Utility of Sufferings for the Just. 
Of their Necessity for the Sinner. 

AVE you ever seen a mother at the sickbed of her 
child during a surgical operation ? With a thou- 
sand little endearments she tries to dry the child^s 
tears, though she does not prevent the physician's cut- 
ting or searing. But if the mother consents that her 
little darling be subjected to treatment so severe, who can 
doubt that it is necessary for the child's well-being? Would 
the mother permit it if the health of the child did not de- 
pend upon it, and were it not to spare it more prolonged 
and more intense pain ? 

My thoughts run in this train when I see you suffering. 
You complain that some one wrongs you, insults, slanders, 
calumniates you, or unjustly robs you of your property. 
Your Saviour (in this name is contained more love and 
tenderness than in the name of mother) — your Saviour sees 
what you suffer. He bears you in His Heart, He who said 
so explicitly, that whoever injures you wounds the apple of 
His eye. He Himself, though He could so easily have averted 
it, permits that you should suffer. And can you still doubt 
that this passing trial is meant to contribute to your true 
happiness? 

Remember all that your Saviour has done to spare you 
useless suffering. Suffering after death bears no merit for 
eternity. In hell one suffers only to suffer. What did 
Jesus Christ do to save us this fruitless pain! 

He took upon Himself our penalty. He shed every drop 
of His blood. He died upon the cross. He voluntarily ex- 
posed Himself to His Father's anger and the fury of the 



Utility and Necessity of Sufferings. 69 

Jews. This He did to snatch you not only from the flames 
of hell, but also from the purifying fires of purgatory. His 
sufferings are sufficient to atone for all our failings. He left 
no debts for us to pay. On the contrary, He bequeathed 
to His Church an inexhaustible treasury of merits from 
which we may daily draw, in order to satisfy Divine Justice 
for our repeated transgressions. This divine love of God 
appeals to me more pow^erfully than any other evidence in 
favor of the value of suffering. Yes, though the Holy 
Ghost had not proclaimed them happy Avho suffer here 
below; if the Holy Scriptures did not so frequently extol 
the advantages of sufferings; if, finally, experience did not 
point to them as the common lot of the true friends of God, 
I should not esteem them less. And why? Because I 
know that our sufferings come from God, from that same 
God who, to spare us the least pain hereafter, willed here 
on earth to undergo every imaginable torture. God gives 
me the chalice that I must drain here on earth. This one 
thought will endue me with courage to raise it to my lips — 
He w^ho endured so much to spare me, wdll not allow^ me to 
suffer merely to procure for Himself vain and cruel pleas- 
ure. 

When I hear a Christian complaining in time of suffering, 
I say to myself: ^"^This poor man bewails his happiness. 
He aspires, perhaps, to riches, and he should thank God 
that he is poor.'^ I am firmly persuaded that no greater 
joy could be granted him than that which has rendered him 
so disconsolate. I have a thousand reasons for my convic- 
tion. And if I knew all that God knows, and saw the 
future rich blessings resulting from these sufferings, how 
strengthened I should become in my first convictions I 

But I hear some one say : ^^ What use to me is this sick- 
ness that hinders my spiritual exercises ? or the loss of my 
property, which throws me into despair ? or that humiliation 
which dejects my soul and produces in my interior confu- 
sion and disorder?'^ Quite true! An unforeseen accident 
may, at the first moment, cast the soul down so as not to bo 



70 Resignation to the Dispensations of Providence. 

able^ at oiice^ to receive it properly. But have patience^ 
and you will see what great graces God is preparing for you 
by means of suffering. Without it you w^ould not, perhaps, 
have been worse than you are ; but yovi would never have 
reached the degree of perfection intended for you. You 
have given yourself wholly to the service of God, but you 
have not yet resolved to sacrifice to Him this or that vanity. 
Does not an inclination to some trifling external pomp still 
linger in your heart? Have you entirely given up that 
longing after wealth and honor for your children ? Or does 
not some purely human friendship still dispute with God 
the possession of your heart T^ You have yet to take a step, 
in order to arrive at perfect freedom. It may be but a lit- 
tle thing that is required of you, but you have not yet 
offered this last sacrifice. Of how many graces do you not 
deprive yourself by this puerile trifling ! There is question, 
we say, of but little things; and yet, nothing is harder, 
nothing costs us more than to break the last weak thread 
that unites the soul to itself and to the world. In this 
state of weakness, the soul partially feels in w^hat it is want- 
ing; but the mere thought of the sacrifice makes it draw 
back terrified. The evil lies so near to the heart that only 
by violent and painful means can it be eradicated. There- 
fore it was that this sudden shock was necessary for you. 
When you least expected it, a skilful hand plunged the 
knife deep through the sound flesh into the diseased part. 
How long without this painful operation would you have 
lingered ? The illness that confined you to a bed of suffer- 
ing; the bankruptcy that threw you into misery ; the hu- 
miliation that covered you with shame; the death that you 
mourn so deeply, — all this accomplished in a moment what 
your ow^n half -formed resolves could never have effected, 
w^hat the guide of your soul so often fruitlessly attempted. 
If these calamities accomplish God'^s designs over you, if 
they disgust you with creatures and force you to cast your- 
self unreservedly into the arms of the Creator, it is certain 
that you will offer more thanks to God for these marks of 



Utility and Necessity of Stiff ei^ings, 7 1 

His love than you formerly did prayers to avert them. In 
your afflictions you will recognize your Lord^s greatest 
favors^ in comparison with which all other considerations 
will appear trifling. The temporal blessings which God up 
to the present bestowed upon you and your family, were 
considered a special proof of His goodness ; but now you 
see clearly, you feel deeply that God never evinced more 
love for you than when He apparently destroyed what He 
had formerly done for your earthly happiness. Was He 
not generous to you when He gave you riches, honor, 
health, and children ? Now in depriving you of them. He 
is extravagant in His blessings. 

We do not speak here of the merit of patience. It is 
certain that, in one day of tribulation, we often gain more 
for heaven than in years of prosperity, though spent ever 
so holily; for we must acknowledge that we do not trust 
the virtue that is practised in the midst of worldly success. 
The great Apostle to the Gentiles gloried only in his 
chains, his stripes, his scourges, and shipwrecks. Of his 
prayers and apostolic works he makes no mention; for in 
continual combats against self, extraordinary graces and 
the greatest vigilance are necessary to prevent self-love 
from creej)ing in. 

Prosperity makes us earthly and effeminate. It is a 
great deal if a prosperous man takes the trouble to think 
of God once or twice in the day. His pleasant surround- 
ings occupy him so agreeably that he easily forgets all else. 
Misfortune, on the contrary, with its dark and desolate 
thoughts, raises our gaze heavenward- and by the hope of 
joys awaiting us, we strive to mitigate our sorrow. We 
may, assuredly, in every condition and under all circum- 
stances glorify God. The pious life of a happy Christian 
honors the Lord exceedingly; but how much more does he 
honor Him who in suffering praises His holy Name ? The 
first may be compared to a faithful and punctual courtier, 
who. follows his prince everywhere, in the council and 
chamber, sharing all the pleasures and feasts of the court; 



"]! Resignation to the Dispensations of Providence. 

but the second^ to a brave general who^ in the midst of a 
thousand dangers and at the sacrifice of his own blood, wins 
battles and cities for his king. Would not such a prince 
owe more to the general than to the courtier ? 

If the rich, the happy, receive temporal blessings from 
God with gratitude, and use them rightly, they certainly 
honor Him; but when one whom Providence has robbed of 
all earthly possessions, one whom He visits with tribulations 
of diverse kinds, remains faithful and follows Him in the 
rough path of suffering, the power of divine grace is 
revealed in him in a manner much more perfect. 

Judge for yourself what their reward will be who, in 
suffering, have glorified the Lord. What glory, at his 
entrance into heaven, awaits the Christian whose life here 
on earth was a series of sufferings, who appears before his 
God covered, so to say, with blood and wounds ! He has 
followed his Lord in all things, he has been the faithful 
companion of the Divine Sufferer. Only in eternity shall 
we understand the infinite love with which God has loved 
us, in affording us the opportunities of acquiring a reward 
so rich. Then shall we reproach ourselves for having, 
whilst on earth, complained of what was to be for us the 
source of eternal felicity. Why should we not cultivate 
these sentiments now? Why should we not now praise God 
for the sufferings for which we shall eternally thank Him 
in heaven ? Why should we envy the successful of this 
world, since they will one day envy us our sufferings? 

St. Augustine cannot sufficiently wonder that God, in 
His unlimited power, infinite happiness, and perfect inde- 
pendence of all creatures should, by an explicit command, 
oblige them to love Him, and even make them participate 
in His greatest happiness. But I wonder yet more at His 
goodness in that He not only imposes so blessed a duty 
upon His enemies; but that, in a manner. He compels them 
to fulfil it. 

Yes, through suffering, God forces even the most perverse 
to return to His friendship. By what other road could 



Utility and Necessity of Sufferings. 73 

they find their way back into His arms? The Word of God, 
the reception of the holy Sacraments, ordinary graces, keep 
Christian souls in the path of virtue. But a man over- 
whelmed with domestic and public affairs; a wife who has 
become the slave of vanity and pleasure ; Christians, in 
fact, whose life is spent in sin and forgetfulness of God, 
must suffer or be eternally lost. 

I know the efficacy of the Divine Word, I know that it 
is sharper than a two-edged sword; yet we daily see that it 
fails to pierce the hardened hearts of men, we daily behold 
the sinner resisting it. How much has not been preached 
against the ever-growing evils of pride and vain show, which 
consume the daily substance of rich and poor; against 
that passion for gaming, which robs one of the time and 
money with which heaven could have been purchased ? 
But what impression do all these earnest admonitions 
make upon the mind of those to whom gambling has be- 
come a formal business, or who squander the most unrea- 
sonable sums in vain dress ? The one forgets in a moment 
what he has heard; the other remembers but to ridicule it. 
Some even feel insulted, and think they have reason to 
complain of the preacher. Now, what can God do to lead 
■ such persons back to the path of duty? There is no means 
left except poverty. Through bitter want, they must be 
forced to sell their vain ornaments, and for the future 
support their family by their labor. Go and preach prayer 
and retirement to that woman so vain of her beauty and of 
the compliments paid her. Do you fancy that your admo- 
nitions will be well received, or that she will even listen to 
you ? To save her soul, an illness must disfigure her, or 
some public confusion forever banish her from worldly 
society. 

When will you speak to the rich, to the pleasure-loving 
voluptuary of conversion ? He thinks not of going to hear 
the Word of God, still less of sending for you and entreat- 
ing your earnest admonitions. And supposing he lent you 
a willing ear, how could a serious, a religious thought find 



74 Resignation to the Dispensations of Providence, 

place in a mind filled with pictures of earthly pleasures 
and worldly affairs ? Grace so ready to insinuate itself into 
souls, can find no entrance into such hearts. But shall we 
despair of the eternal salvation of these men ? Is there no 
means left to snatch them from the abyss of ruin ? Yes, 
the Lord has still one means by which He calls to Himself 
the elect who, blinded by prosperity, have turned away from 
Him. This last saving means comes in the shape of tribu- 
lation, illness, the sudden death of a dear relative, the loss 
of property, etc. What fruit will this adversity bear? It 
will incline the soul estranged from God to sorrow. Whole- 
some suffering will turn it away from the most seductive 
pleasures, will bring it to the knowledge of its crimes and 
debaucheries, and will lead it, finally, into the arms of its 
truly religious friends. The soul in time of trial recognizes 
the evil she has done, she seeks its source, she looks for 
help. Now one can speak to her of sin, of conversion, and 
of confession. She will herself feel soon the happy neces- 
sity of an earnest change of life, since it has become impos- 
sible for her to continue longer in sin. 

This sufficiently demonstrates that we should, under all 
circumstances, meet misfortunes cheerfully. They render 
the just more just; they, in a measure, force the sinner to 
penance. They only upon whose hardened hearts trials 
and tribulations have failed to make an impression; they 
that are not improved in the furnace of suffering; they that, 
perhaps, become therein worse, have cause for affliction. 
Such obstinacy is the surest and most evident sign of con- 
demnation. A Christian who leads a godless life, and whom 
God does not chastise, should, if a spark of religion is yet 
alive within him, tremble; but a sinner who does not bend 
under the rod of God^s chastisement, may be counted among 
the reprobate. 



CHAPTER V.^ 
Of the Good Use of Sufferings. 




HE goodness of God chastises those whom He 
loves. Why, asks some one, does God take pleas- 
ure in seeing us suffer? Could He not make us 
good and perfect without first plunging us into pain and 
misery? He certainly could, for to Him nothing is impos- 
sible. In His almighty hand. He holds the hearts of all 
men and moulds them as He pleases. But God, who could 
have saved us without suffering, has not so willed, just 
as He has subjected men to the weakness of childhood and 
gradual growth, instead of creating them in the full vigor 
of manhood. He is the Lord. We have only to be silent, 
and adore His infinite wisdom without desiring to fathom 
it. All that we know is that we can become perfect only 
when wd are humble, disinterested, disengaged from our- 
selves, and when we refer all things to God. 

Without a miracle it is not possible for grace to free us 
from ourselves, or to snatch self-love from us without caus- 
ing us pain. If a soul filled with self could in an instant 
die to all vanity, it would be as great a wonder as to go 
to bed a child and to rise up a man of thirty. But God 
does not work miracles every day, either in the natural or 
supernatural order. 

God conceals His work in almost imperceptible progress. 
What He does, is not only done by degrees but often also 
by simple and natural means, so that human wisdom sees 
in it little of the finger of God. Such results are frequently 
ascribed to means which appear wholly natural. Were we 
accustomed to see miracles in God^s works, in what would 

1 This chapter is taken from Fenelon's Works, ^ee also, " The Following of 
Christ," n. Bk., ch. 11 and 12; III. Bk., ch. 47 and 49. 



76 Resignation to the Dispensations of Providence, 

the merit of faith consist? God wills that in this life we 
should believe without seeing. 

That we should live by faith has a double object. The 
just man must be tried by it. He must^ in the darkness 
of this life, renounce his own judgment; and the sinner, 
who in his presumption has not merited to see the light, 
shall be blinded by it. He sees the works of God and 
knows them not. True understanding, he alone deserves 
who distrusts his own wisdom. Man^s proud knowledge is 
not worthy to enter into the councils of God. 

God wills also that the workings of grace should be con- 
cealed in the darkness of faith. He allows them to act 
slowly and painfully. He makes use of the inconstancy 
and ingratitude of creatures, the disappointment and weari- 
ness found in all earthly enjoyments, to wean us from the 
false pleasures of this world. He frees us from ourselves 
by showing ns our own weakness and perversity, and by al- 
lowing us to relapse repeatedly into the same faults. All 
this seems quite natural to us; and through a long course of 
apparently human means. He purifies us by degrees as in a 
slow fire. We would gladly be cleansed at once in the flame 
of God's pure love; but what would so sudden a destruction 
of self and its faults cost? It is our boundless self-love 
alone that makes us desire to become perfect in an instant 
and at small cost. 

Why do we revolt against the length of our crucifixion? 
Only because we cling to self. It is this very clinging that 
God designs to uproot; for so long as we are occupied with 
self. His will cannot be accomplished in us. Besides, of 
what have we to complain? Our misfortune is that we 
cling to creatures and still more to self. For this reason, 
therefore, God arranges a series of preconcerted circum- 
stances, which gradually detach us from creatures and 
eventually from ourselves. It is a painful operation; but 
our perversity renders it necessary, and its very necessity 
makes it painful. If a man^s members were sound, there 
would be no need of surgical cutting or cauterizing. Such 



The Good Use of Stiff erhigs, J "J 

operations are required only when the wound is deep and 
the flesh corrupt. The more pain the surgeon causes, the 
more certain it is that the wound is dangerous. Would it 
be considered cruelty on the part of the surgeon to continue 
cutting and probing as long as he found it needful? Cer- 
tainly not. He acts through a principle of love and duty; 
he would not act differently toward his only son. 

Thus does God deal with us. He causes us pain only 
when forced to do so. His paternal Heart does not wish 
to afflict us; but He is compelled to cut into the sound 
flesh, in order to heal the wound hidden deep in our heart. 
He must take from us what we love too much, what we 
value more highly than we do even Himself. He deals 
with us as a mother with her little child. She does not 
regard his tears when she takes from him the knife with 
which he might inflict upon himself a mortal wound. We 
weep, we shrink^ we cry Ah! and Woe! We struggle 
against God like children who, with hands and feet^ strive 
against their mother. But God lets us cry and meanwhile 
heals us. He visits us only for our ovm good even when 
He appears to annihilate us. He acts thus for our own ad- 
vantage and to spare us the suffering that we would bring 
upon ourselves. Had God left us that which we bewail, it 
would have cost us eternal tears. What we thought lost, 
was really so only when we fancied that we possessed it. 
God has taken it into his own safe-keeping intending to 
restore it in eternity. God deprives us of the object of 
our affection, in order to infuse into us a purer, a more 
constant, and better regulated love for it, that we may se- 
cure the eternal possession of it in His bosom. 

In this world nothing happens without God^s willing it. 
He does all, orders all^ directs all. He gives to every 
creature all that it possesses. He numbers the hairs of our 
head, the leaves of the trees, the grains of sand on the sea- 
shore, and the drops of water in the ocean. At the crea- 
tion of the world His wisdom weighed and measured even 
the least molecule that enters into the physical constitution 



y8 Resignation to the Dispensations of Providence. 

of the sun. He it is who, at every moment, breathes into 
us new life. He has counted our days and holds in His 
mighty hand the keys of the gates of death which He 
alone can open or can close. What appears most striking 
to us is in His eyes of little importance. A few years of 
life, more or less, make no difference to Him. What mat- 
ters it whether this mortal covering, this body of dust, be 
consigned to corruption a little sooner or a little later ? 

how short-sighted and treacherous is our judgment ! 
A youth dies in the bloom of life. We are shocked. 
" What a fearful loss ^!' we say. But whom does the loss 
concern? What has the deceased lost? Some years of life 
filled with vanity, deceit, and danger of eternal death. 
God took him away out of the midst of sinners. He 
snatched him suddenly from the corruption of the w^orld 
and his own weakness. What do they lose to whom the 
departed was dear? They lose the poison of worldly hap- 
piness ; they are roused from intoxicating pleasures, from 
long forgetfulness of God and their own destiny. They 
will gain through the cross the strength to resign their will 
to that of Divine Providence. By this stroke God saved the 
deceased and leads the relatives to resignation, to freedom 
of heart, so that they may go on courageously in the work 
of their eternal salvation. 

how true it is that God is infinitely good, infinitely 
loving ; that His paternal Heart has compassion on our 
actual sufferings ! Even at the moment in which the 
thunder of His wrath could annihilate us, and when the 
temptation is strong upon us to complain of His harshness. 
He loves us and has compassion on us. 

AVhat difference now between two persons who lived a 
hundred years ago, one of whom died twenty years before 
the other ? Both have been dead a long time. The separa- 
tion which then seemed so long and so hard, now appears 
to them as nothing; and it was in reality only a very short 
one. Soon shall the separated be reunited. The memory 
of their brief parting will scarcely remain. We act as if 



The Good Use of Stiff crings. 79 

we were to live hundreds of years — yes^ even forever. 
What foolishness ! How quickly the dying follow the 
dead ! He who sets out only two days after his friend 
upon the same journey, finds that the distance between 
them is not so great. Life flows on like a stream. The 
past is only a dream ; the present is flying at the very mo- 
ment in which we think to hold it, and is buried in the 
abyss of the past. The future will follow in its train ; and 
it, too, will vanish rapidly. Days, months, and years press 
upon one another, drive on like the restless waves of the 
ocean, in endless pursuit, one of the other. There comes a 
moment, and all are engulfed. Hours of trial and nights 
of suffering which, in their actual endurance, seemed to us 
eternal, will, when all is over, appear to have been very 
short ! 

It is self-love alone that makes us so weak and sensitive. 
The invalid upon bis bed of pain counts hour after hour. 
To him the night is unending ; and yet it is in reality no 
longer than other nights. Cowardice makes us exaggerate 
our sufferings. They may, perhaps, be great, but our im- 
agination magnifies them. The best way to shorten them, 
and to maintain patience to the end, is to abandon our- 
selves generously to God. Suffer we do, indeed, but God 
wills it so, in order to purify us and make us worthy of him- 
self. The world smiles upon us, and the happiness we de- 
rive from it enfeebles our heart. Should we desire to live, 
till the terrible moment of death, in lifers sensual merry- 
making, its splendor, its vain joy, its proud triumphs, its 
love of itself, its enmity toward Christ, its horror of His 
cross, which alone can sanctify ? The world will soon 
turn its back upon us. It will reject us with ingratitude, 
will number us among the things that are no more. Who, 
then, can wonder that the world will ever be the world ; 
that is, always unjust, deceitful, and treacherous ! And 
yet we are not ashamed to love it, and even wish to be still 
more entangled in its meshes. But God aims at disengag- 
ing us from it. He wishes to free us from its accursed 



So Resignation to the Dispensations of Providence, 

slavery, in order to admit us to the blessed freedom of 
them that have renounced all things to follow Him. And 
how do we look upon his wise designs ? Alas, we become 
disconsolate ! If we allow ourselves to grieve over the 
disesteem of so miserable and abandoned a world, we are 
indeed our own enemies. We do not desire what is good 
for us, and we sigh for what brings us trouble. What an 
unworthy cause for so many tears, so many pangs ! 

If God tries us on the most sensitive point, so much the 
better ! Adore the hand that strikes, let no word fall 
from the lips other than ^"^I have deserved it ! The chal- 
ice is bitter, but with my Saviour I must drain it to the 
dregs. Christ dying for His executioners has taught me to 
love, to bless, to pray for my persecutors.^^ 

Let us redouble our prayers in the time of combat, anx- 
iety, and temptation. In the Heart of Our Saviour dying 
on the cross, we shall find strength to love those whom 
pride tempts us to hate. A cross loved is only half a cross, 
because love sweetens everything. Whoever is poor in 
love, is rich in suffering. Happy the soul that suffers 
much and suffers in the proper spirit! How unhappy 
would I be, if I were not to suffer with Christ, since I am 
here below only to be purified by the cross! 

God tries us by sickness and exterior want, and from all 
we must derive profit! Every cross that God sends is neces- 
sary for us. We suffer much only because we cling too 
tenaciously to that of which God must divest us. We 
oppose, we delay the work of God in us. We thrust from 
us the healing hand and force our Heavenly Physician 
always to begin the cure anew. We should suffer far less 
if we abandoned ourselves entirely to God. 

The cross accepted in a spirit of sacrifice, is never fruit- 
less. Blessed is he who is ready for everything, who never 
says: It is too much! Blessed is he who builds not upon 
self, but upon the All-powerful, who wishes for no more 
consolation than God gives, and who feeds only upon the 
Divine Will! 



The Good Use of Sufferings, 8 1 

The cross is^ for faithful souls^ so assured a sign of 
mercy^ and one so rich in the promise of an abundant har- 
vest^ that faith should make us rejoice in it despite the 
resistance of nature. We find peace when in resignation, 
and by it we offer to Him the sacrifice of our sweet pleas- 
ures. God urges the soul to the utmost to put off all that 
is not Himself. What else remains but courageously to 
embrace the proffered cross, and to allow ourselves to be 
crucified upon it? When He, our good Father, has tried 
us sufficiently, then He consoles. But His manner of do- 
ing so is not like that of creatures, whose sympathy only 
serves to nourish self-love. The consolation of God is true 
and lasting. 

It is a great grace to establish one^s peace in resignation 
to God^s will and the privation of exterior comfort. We 
learn thereby to persevere courageously in trials. God has 
every right to dispose of His creatures, and their sinfulness 
deserves all kinds of humiliation and of crosses. These 
two thoughts should be our strength in trial. Let us per- 
mit God to be the Master, for men are impotent. Often 
when all seems lost, all is gained. God with His own hand 
casts down, and with His own hand raises up again. 

Happy the man that suffers, if he but suffer rightly and 
satisfy divine justice! How much do we not owe this jus- 
tice, and, strictly speaking, what sufferings have we not 
deserved! Instead of eternal pain, God sends us some 
hours of illness. Instead of the loss of the vision of God, 
instead of the rage and despair of the infernal spirits, the 
All-merciful sends us only a few short days of suffering in 
which to adore the hand that strikes through love. Such 
crosses call for gratitude, and not for complaints. Our 
heart must tell us that they are graces. Had God strick- 
en us with leprosy. He would still smite us lightly; for 
how much more frightful is the leprosy of pride, of sin^ 
and of self -idolatry, than that of the body! 

A self -chosen cross is worth almost nothing.^ God alone 

1 If the author here speaks of self -impose^ crosses, which are almost worth 



8 2 Resignation to the Dispensations of Providence, 

understands by what sort of self-denial to train the soul. 
The cross that God sends us shatters our pride, though 
not without our co-operation. We must do our part. 
When before God we calmly renounce our own will, then, 
and then only, has His grace the power to humble and to 
purify us. Abandon self and self-love! As long as we 
remain attached to them, we expose ourselves to men^s 
antagonism, to their malice and injustice. Our humors do 
not harmonize with the whims of others, our passions re- 
sist theirs. Every desire of ours is a tender spot, to which 
the touch of our fellow-creatures causes pain. In self- 
denial alone is found peace; and peace will always be the 
more perfect in proportion as self-renunciation is more 
entire. 

nothing for the benefit or the future reward of the soul, he certainly cannot 
mean self-imposed penances and mortifications. They are often necessary and 
restrain the passions. They are practised and recommended even by the saints, 
and, when sanctified by obedience, they will be gloriously rewarded in the life 
to come. 

Self-imposed crosses, whose worth is to be suspected, are only those under- 
taken through self-love and against God's holy will.— Traiisto^or. 



PART II. 

TRUE PIETY THE INDISPENSABLE FOUNDA- 
TION OF INTERIOR PEACE— THE WAY 
IN WHICH GOD LEADS SOULS TO 
PEACE AND PERFECTION, 

Theke are -many souls of good-will, but their erroneous 
ideas' of piety are prejudicial to interior peace and progress 
in perfection. The second part of our work^ therefore, 
shall be to consider this matter. 

I. To show the just idea of true and solid piety. 
II. To enumerate briefly the way and means by which 
God usually leads souls to sanctity. 

III. Important delusions and errors are pointed out 
which hinder us on our way 



CHAPTER I. 



The Foundation of True Piety — Points in which 

we Should Imitate the Example 

of the Saints. 




E here speak not to those who serve two masters 
and^ under the outward appearance of piety^ en- 
joy all the pleasures of this world. Our words 
are directed only to those that with an upright will 
cling to God alone. Few of them know^ at least prac- 
tically, in what the service of the Lord consists, and in 
what way they may safely and easily comply with their ob- 
ligations. They either neglect the most important rules of 

83 



§4 True Piety the Foundation of Interioi^ Peace. 

the spiritual life and hold to the least, which their irnagina- 
tion suggests as duties; or they forget the sad state into 
which original sin has plunged us, and aim at an unattaina- 
ble ideal of perfection, which prepares them only for dis- 
couragement, sadness, and dejection. Both hinder progress 
in virtue and, after years of effort, many souls realize the 
words of the Apostle: *'• We have labored all the night and 
taken nothing. '' ' Yes, truly, they have worked in the 
dark, for no light from above has shone upon their en- 
deavors; and, in their striving after perfection as in every 
other undertaking, good -will without true knowledge and 
right understanding does not suffice. We shall, then, give a 
short but clear idea of true piety, which leads the soul by 
union with God here below to peace, and above to eternal 
happiness. This idea is founded on the right knowledge of 
our relations to (lod and on the duties proceeding from 
them. God is our Creator and, therefore, our Lord and 
our Master. He can lawfully dispose of us and all belong- 
ing to us according to His pleasure: our thoughts, desires, 
actions, etc. But, in His goodness. He Avould not only be 
Lord, but also Father and Saviour to us; and from this 
should spring our fidelity toward Him. Our first obliga- 
tion is entire submission to His sovereign law. The creat- 
ure must always be ready to renounce himself, that is, his 
inclinations and desires, and bring them as an offering to 
God's will; for he has received his existence only in order to 
fulfil the will of his Creator. St. Francis de Sales says: 
^'^ Piety is nothing else than the inclination and readiness to 
do all that we know to be pleasing to God. '' 

Our second duty to God as our Father and Saviour, is 
love and confidence. From this duty anxious, timid souls 
only too often stray, seeing in God only a stern master. 
Such an opinion is injurious to the truth and honor of God, 
and is, for the souls entertaining it, a source of interior 
anguish and disquiet. 

From what has been said, the nature of true piety may 

1 Luke V. 5. 



The Foundation of True Piety. 85 

be easily understood. Whoever serves God with unbounded 
resignation, offering his self-love m sacrifice, and this with 
full and loving confidence in the divine goodness, is truly 
pious; he will fulfil all his obligations. He will worship 
the Lord through love, adoration, and prayer in conformity 
to the Divine Will; in patience, in suffering he will honor 
Him; he will also observe all the rules of Christian justice 
and love, thus fulfilling his duties toward his neighbor; 
finally, he will not neglect his duties toward himself, but 
courageously fight against his disorderly passions. By sub- 
duing them he will again establish in his soul that beautiful 
order once reigning there, but which sin destroyed- 

This is, in few words, the idea of true piety. What 
follows merely enlarges and explains particulars. But it is 
easily understood that one can attain to various degrees of 
this idea of perfection, for there is a very great difference 
between the lowest degree of self-denial, which freedom 
from every mortal sin secures, and that perfection which is 
attained by overcoming one^s self in every imperfect emo 
tion, even in the least things. Treading this path to the 
end, has been the work of a whole lifetime for the greatest 
saints. One advances but slowly along it; and it is not 
given to all to reach the term, though all should aim at it. 
When Our Saviour tells us, " Be ye perfect as your Heavenly 
Father is perfect,^' the meaning is, strive unceasingly after 
that perfection although it is so high that you can never say 
to yourself, " I have reached it. '^ 

On the way of perfection there are two snares to be met. 
The first is cowardice. Many Christians are satisfied with 
themselves because, strictly speaking, they do all that is 
necessary to salvation. They concern themselves little 
about paying God more perfectly the love and submission 
they owe Him, and they think little of the danger to which 
they expose themselves by neglecting their most important 
duties, thereby endangering the salvation of their soul. To 
such we do not speak here. They must, by earnest and 
impressive admonitions, be aroused from their slothful 



86 Trite Piety the roicndation of Interior Peace, 

slumber; tliey need assuredly not be warned against exces- 
sive fervor. 

The second^ and far more dangerous snare^ is the false 
idea devout souls but too often have of their duties. Such 
souls are frequently to be found in almost presumptuous 
ignorance of the real obligations which the service of God 
requires of them. In their misunderstanding they make 
demands upon themselves far beyond their strength and 
the designs of God. It is most necessary that they should 
be disabused of such delusions; for they lead to errors 
highly prejudicial^ render all efforts at advancement in 
virtue fruitless, and rob souls of that interior peace which 
should be secured to them by their good-will. We shall, 
therefore, in the next four chapters disclose the errors of 
those who, instead of the Divine Law, frame an imaginary 
code for themselves as a guide to perfection, which self- 
made laws are equally unreasonable and impracticable. 

When such false ideas, unfortunately too wide-spread, 
have been rectified, we shall explain in the last chapters of 
the second part upon what the conditions of our spiritual 
progress depend, and upon what paths God^s providence 
generally leads souls to perfection. First of all, let us 
make some important observations on the false ideas often 
conceived of the lives of the saints, and the so much rec- 
ommended imitation of their virtues; for these points are 
one of the richest sources of the above-mentioned errors. 
The imperfect and unintelligible manner in which the 
lives of the saints are not unfrequently written contributes 
not a little to impress the reader with false views. The 
facts related are mostly inimitable, whilst wonders of daz- 
zling glare are told. Said wonders are confounded by 
many with sanctity, whilst, in truth, they are but its 
accidental consequences. 

God, through certain saints, has wrought visible wonders 
to crown them with glory before men for the honor of His 
Church. He has also inundated their soul with extraordi- 
nary graces, upon which rest the remarkable facts of their 



The Foicndation of Trice Piety, 87 

life without, however^ their constituting holiness. Many 
others have amassed not less merit before God by a hidden 
laborious life. Bellarmine, who was for a long time spir- 
itual director of the Eoman College of which St. Aloysius 
Gonzaga was at that time a member, often said there lay in 
the vault of that house several young brothers of the Soci- 
ety who, in the holiness to which they had attained, were 
not inferior to Aloysius in perfection. Sanctity does not 
depend upon extraordinary graces, which are not the result 
of merit, but simply the work of the Divine Will. To one 
the Lord imparts remarkable prerogatives, and from another 
He requires a hidden and ordinary life. When, then, we 
read the lives of the saints, we must not abandon the imagi- 
nation, so easily excited by the extraordinary, to enthusi- 
astic reveries. By so doing, we should expose ourselves 
either to the danger of presumption by eagerly aiming to 
realize in ourselves what we have read; or to that of yield- 
ing to discouragement and diffidence in our despair of 
arriving at similar results, as if nothing but the extraordi- 
nary was to be learned from the great heroes of Christianity. 
On the contrary, what we should imitate in the saints is 
wholly independent of the wonders met in their lives. We . 
should take as a model the virtues which they practised; 
the fidelity with which they corresponded to the graces 
they received, no matter what they required of them; the 
great courage with which they sacrificed self-love in order 
to follow divine inspiration; and, finally, the heroic combat 
against inordinate inclinations implanted in them by origi- 
nal sin as well as in us. We shall now speak of a very 
common error. One often represents to himself the saints 
during their earthly career as they now are in heaven, that 
is, in the full splendor of glory and purity. They consider 
them entirely different from their fellow-men, beings to 
whom the weakness and corruption of our nature were 
strangers; and who, consequently, had but to will and to 
do, not to practise and combat for the acquisition of heroic 
virtues. When we are exhorted to imitate theni; we bring 



SS T7^ue Piety the Foundation of Inte7^ior Peace. 

forward the excuse: '"■ Ah, but they were saints V as if the 
attribute of sanctity changed them into wholly different 
beings or made them angels. We see upon reflection that 
this could not be; but practically we hold to the false views 
which are often enough expressed in our words and actions. 
Our sacred legends generally strengthen such an opinion, 
since the trials, the weaknesses, and the faults of the saints 
are passed over in silence; or, at least, very lightly touched 
upon. From such stories one cannot gain an insight into 
the interior life of the saints. The misery and weakness 
of nature to which they, as well as ourselves, perhaps more 
than ourselves, were subject, are not portrayed,^ although 
they more courageously and steadfastly than we sustained 
the combat. 

And yet, this is the very point that should be placed 
before us to console us in temptation, to increase our 
courage, and to prove to us by the example of the saints 
that we are not only able, but also bound to imitate them. 
We must, at one time, behold them advancing to the com- 
bat; at another, shrinking back and wavering. We must 
hear the great Apostle to the Gentiles complaining of the 
revolts of the flesh, when hard pressed by its rebellion he 
cries out: ^'Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me 
from the body of this death V ' We must call to mind the 
weakness of the Prince of the Apostles who denied his Mas- 
ter three times; then we shall see that all is not lost even 
were we to fall into grievous sin. But we must not forget 
PauFs trust in God^s grace, nor Peter^s' humble contrition, 
generous confession, and unlimited confidence in God, not 
to speak of the lives of other holy persons in which so much 
can be learned. 

AVhat the Apostle St. James says of the God-favored 
prophet Elias holds good in regard to the other saints; 
they were men like us, subject to sufferings like us. They 
also felt within them that lamentable consequence of the 
sin of our first parents, the continual conflict between the 

1 Romans vii. 24. 



The Fotindation of True Piety. 89 

flesh and the spirit. Many among them were for long 
years chained down by their passions; and even after their 
conversion^ the hard struggle against them was the daily 
bread of their life. Nor was the victory always theirs, for 
^^in many things we all offend/^ ^ says the same Apostle. 
Trifling faults were the natural consequences of their weak- 
ness. But they knew how to repair quickly those into 
which they were surprised, and their hearts remained 
upright before God; they sought the Lord magnanimously, 
and, by His grace, they persevered in the firm resolution not 
to refuse Him anything, though even He should slay them. 
This is what we should do to imitate them, for we shall, 
undoubtedly, fall into greater faults than they. Such 
grace as theirs we indeed may not share; but for that very 
reason we shall have a less severe account to render. God 
only requires us to correspond with the graces He bestows 
upon us as earnestly and as faithfully as the saints did to 
their extraordinary favors. If we do this, then shall we be 
their true imitators, although in virtue and merit far below 
them; for we shall have traded with the talent intrusted to 
us, and that is all that the Master exacts. 

All Christians are called to perfection and holiness, but 
God has not intended for all the same degree or species of 
holiness. The Church herself tells us that no two saints are 
alike, and it follows that the grace of each is as different 
as the call. Christ teaches us the same thing in the parable 
of the unequal division of the talents which the master of 
the household intrusted to all of his servants, desiring 
each to gain a sum corresponding to the amount received. 
He declared them worthy of an equal reward, although all 
could not show equally great gains. He may hope for like 
treatment in spiritual matters who, having received little, 
has faithfully traded with that little. Let him present 
himself before God with the same confidence as the more 
favored who have richer gifts to bring. Would not the 
intention of the father of the household be misunderstood 

^ 1 James iii. 2. 



90 Trve Piety the Foundation of Interior Peace. 

if the former believed himself obliged to gain as much with 
his one talent as the latter with two ? Would it not be 
unreasonable in him to undertake the same successful 
enterprises as he to whom a considerable sum had been 
intrusted? Were such the case, he would display more 
love of self than love for the honor and interest of his 
master. Besides, secret jealousy with its whole retinue 
of crimes and consequent dangers, would here creep in. 
That others were more favored by the master would give 
rise to chagrin, a delusion in the spiritual life against 
which one can scarcely be sufficiently on his guard. 

By virtue of the superabundant promises of God, all may 
confidently expect from Him the ordinary graces necessary 
for the fulfilment of the common Christian duties, as well 
as others peculiar to their state. In addition to this, every 
soul can, by prayer and faithful correspondence with graces 
already received from the infinite liberality of God, im- 
petrate as many new ones as are compatible with the Lord's 
designs over it. Therefore, no soul should, by refusing to 
advance as far as God wishes to lead it, wilfully set limits 
to the goodness of God. But it would be unpardonable 
arrogance to lay claim to the extraordinary graces and 
special gifts granted to the saints who, in their humility, 
esteemed themselves unworthy of such favors. 

Christian lowliness accords not with ambitious desires 
such as these, and still less with that jealousy excited in 
certain souls at sight of the great graces granted to others 
but denied to themselves. It is also a delusion of self-love 
to lay claim to the particular prerogatives of the saints, to 
those heavenly illuminations, those unspeakable consola- 
tions which made prayer for them a delight; whilst for us, 
owing to our dissipation, our spiritual languor, it very often 
proves a laborious and painful task. 

Certain persons think not enough of this. They are not 
satisfied with what they can accomplish in a reasonable way 
with the graces received. They v/ould, with St. Aloysius, 
be without distractions at prayer ; with St. Teresa, a 



The Fotuidation of True Piety. 91 

stranger to every revolt of the flesh; and with St. Cath- 
arine of Sienna at Holy Communion, inflamed with glowing 
love of God. In their inability to realize their vain desires, 
they fall into disgust and weariness; they no longer do what 
they can, because they cannot do what they wish. Then 
comes the reflection: ^^ Why strive after perfection?^' till, 
at last, they become so relaxed that even the most binding 
duties are no longer fulfilled. The foundation of their 
error lies in this, that in the spiritual life, the indispensa- 
able maxim of moderation is neglected in spite of that im- 
pressive warning of the Apostle: " Be wise in measure !" ' 
We would laugh at a child if we saw it abandoning under- 
takings suitable to its strength, in order to emulate those 
of a giant; and yet the souls of whom we speak act not more 
wisely. Ah, if we only rightly comDrehended wherein the 
imitation of the saints consists ! 

1 Romans xii. la. 



CHAPTER II. 

We must Serve God according to His Will and 

not for the Gratification of our own 

Inclinations. 




OD means us to serve Him as He wills^ and not in 
accordance with our own tastes and humors; He 
means us to follow the Commandments which He 
has given us^ and not those that our unruly imagination 
would substitute for the divine; it means that^ renouncing 
our rebellious thoughts, we make tliose of God our own. 
Eightly to understand this, is of the liighest importance, 
because it is the surest foundation of spiritual progress and 
the basis of interior peace. But such insight is wanting to 
many souls who have more good-will than knowledge and 
experience, and it is the particular need of the scrupulous. 
The greater part of the mental anguish which this latter 
class creates for itself, arises not from actual duties, but 
from others which are self-imposed. They are not satisfied 
with the Commandments of God and His Church; they 
must have more. The worst of this is, that they are as 
stubborn as they are inexperienced. They do not wish to 
be enlightened upon their erroneous ideas of true piety. 
Devotion, according to them, consists in certain exterior 
practices, good and praiseworthy, to be sure, but which 
are only a means to an end. The souls of whom we treat 
frequently attach undue importance to such devotions, 
whilst overlooking wilful and considerable faults. Not 
unfrequently they impose upon themselves most rigorous 
obligations for the practice of certain acts, thus nourishing 
in the soul, sentiments quite inconsistent with man's earthly 
existence. In spite of daily experience^ they seem to forget 

93 



We mtist Serve God according to His Will, 93 

to what weakness, as well as positive inability^ the sin of 
our first parents has condemned us. For example^ they 
think they could and should so school themselves as to 
banish every distraction in prayer, ward off every revolt of 
the flesh, control every indeliberate evil thought and emo- 
tion. They fancy that to serve God perfectly, they must no 
longer endure temptation ; w^iilst, on the contrary^ our 
temptations to evil, are in proportion to our resistance. They 
seem not to know^ that they have within them two beings^ 
the old Adam constantly fighting against us, intent upon 
naught but evil, and the new man born of grace. The 
latter is forced to live with the former, to feel the effects of 
his corruption, to endure his incessant attacks, and to ad- 
vance in virtue only by continual struggles. 

In consequence of their ignorance, or rather their mis- 
taken notions, scrupulous souls form for themselves a re- 
ligion simply impossible, and impracticable save in theory. 
Thus they even expose themselves to the danger of despair 
when, in spite of all their efforts, they do not succeed in 
carrying out their chimerical designs. Most wonderful is 
the contradiction of which they are guilty ; for whilst aim- 
ing at the impossible, they deny to God w^hat He most 
justly requires of them, namely, the sacrifice of their vain 
ideas, and submission to their spiritual guides. And so 
they languish for years in a most lamentable state. They 
make many efforts, and they suffer still more, but without 
achieving anything. They make no progress in virtue, 
they have no merit, because self-ivill is at the bottom of all 
their actions, which before God are Avorthless. They do 
not serve God according to His Avill ; on the contrary, they 
make to themselves most false and most insulting represen- 
tations of Him. Sometimes they see in Him a hard and 
menacing master, ever ready with scourges to chastise 
them in His wrath ; sometimes they liken Him to the lords 
of this world, who take not into consideration the good- will 
of their subjects ; who are satisfied only wdth perfect ser- 
vice ; who have no patience with a poor servant who, in 



94 Trtte Piety the Foundation of Interior Peace. 

spite of his desires^ is unable to satisfy their demands. 
Represent to yourself a very active but awkward servant^ 
who is always on duty, though only to do something pre- 
cisely different from what he has been told, always follow- 
ing his own judgment instead of orders received. Could 
such service satisfy a master? This is but the true picture 
of those souls whose self-deceit we here aim at healing. 
The first steps such souls have to make, in order to extri- 
cate themselves from their unhappy thraldom, is earnestly 
to strive, in obedience to their director, to acquire a knowl- 
edge of their real obligations and a just idea of true piety. 

They must comprehend the condition of man on earth 
since the commission of the first sin, that they may learn 
to distinguish what is possible to us and what is beyond 
our control. They must understand that we have lost by 
original sin almost all command not only over visible crea- 
tion, but also over the powers of our own soul ; that that 
which was once subject to us is now almost the master ; 
and that with our numerous enemies both within and with- 
out the devil leagues to lead us astray. Our free-will 
alone remains, with wiiicli, aided by divine grace in our 
various combats and trials, we may gradually gain what we 
have lost. But in the first place, we should bear the evil 
effects of our misery with the thousand trials inseparable 
from this incessant interior war ; and, in child-like trust in 
God^s mercy and in humble mistrust of our own weakness, 
perseveringly continue our efforts to resist the adversary 
and satisfy the demands of God. I say in humble diffi- 
dence of our own strength ; for were we to confide in our- 
selves, experiencing so often as we do our own weakness, 
discouragement alone would be our portion. 

We cannot here enumerate all the deceits to which the 
souls referred to above are exposed in the path of virtue. 
Equally impossible would it be to particularize the imagi- 
nary duties with which they overburden themselves and 
distort the law of God. Most of these difficulties would be 
obviated; if they would reflect upon what we have said, 



We must Serve God according to His Will. 95 

We shall now treat of three matters more in detail^ partly 
because they occur so frequently in the Christian life and 
partly because they are of the greatest importance, viz., 
the Sacrament of Penance, Holy Eucharist, and prayer. 
These three practices,, prescribed us by the law of God, 
should prove the greatest consolation of our soul. But 
alas ! too many make them a source of true torment by im- 
posing upon themselves I know not what kind of imaginary 
obligations. This causes them to live in continual anxiety 
and excitement, and not unfrequently casts them into de- 
spair. We deem it necessary, therefore, to lay down some 
just principles by which such souls may correct their false 
ideas. 




CHAPTER III. 

Of the Sacrament of Penance, and of the Peace 
and Comfort found in its Reception. 

LMIGHTY God instituted the holy Sacrament of 
Penance in order to lead us to that purity of con- 
science without which neither salvation nor per- 
fection is possible. By its means He would increase sanc- 
tifying grace^ or restore it if lost^ and to all souls impart 
peace and rest. Confession is a medicine to be taken when 
necessary or useful^ and not an ordinary nourishment^ to 
be partaken of several times daily. 

But why^ for certain souls, is this Sacrament the source 
of continual anxiety and agitation? Why do they busy 
themselves with it as if it were their only occupation of 
life ? Simply because, owing to their false judgment, they 
misrepresent the divine precepts ; because they convert a 
remedy into poison ; because they impose upon themselves 
obligations utterly impossible to be fulfilled. 

In order to cure souls affected by this obnoxious malady, 
and save others from similar errors, we shall here give the 
exact and simple rules to be observed in the reception of 
the holy Sacrament of Penance. We shall go through five 
points which, according to the Catechism, are requisite to a 
good confession. 

I. The Accusatio:n^ or the Confession' itself. — In 
the first place, we must discriminate between the necessary 
and the merely advantageous and voluntary accusation. 

1. The Necessary Accusation, — What must we confess? 
— All mortal sins of which there is no doubt, with their 
number as far as we can reasonably remember, and such 
circumstances as change or alter the nature of the sin ; as 
Avhen, for example, a theft is committed in a church. Cir- 

96 



The Sacrament of Penance, 97 

cumstances which only aggravate the sin — for insf-ance, the 
greatness of the amount purloined^ and the like — the j)eni- 
tent is not^ according to the unanimous opinion of learned 
theologians approved by the Churchy obliged to confess. 
It suffices if he answers the probable questions of the con- 
fessor. If, uncertain whether he has committed a sin or 
not, he mentions his doubt, he has done more than he is 
strictly bound to do. He w^ho suffers from scruples would 
in this case do better to keep silent. A sin forgotten is 
pardoned all the same ; but if it be a mortal sin, it must, 
when remembered, be mentioned in the next confession ; 
nor need one ever repeat a sin of which he has accused him- 
self in a valid confession. 

This is strictly all that God makes obligatory on the sin- 
ner in his avowal. We substitute our own judgment for 
the Law of God when w^e make it a duty to recite a whole 
litany of venial sins with their attendant circumstances 
and histories, to do which fully would be simply impossi- 
ble. Hence arise a thousand anxieties and scruples for 
having omitted what w^as purely impossible to confess, and 
what we might without sin have freely passed over. 

2. Useful Accusations, — Their object is venial sin. To 
confess venial sins is by no means essential either to the 
perfection of the accusation or the remission of sin. Our 
passing them over in silence sliould never give grounds for 
just or even reasonable anxiety ; but in general such accu- 
sation is useful to all. Those who are so happy as not to 
commit mortal sin must if they will confess, accuse them- 
selves of venial sin ; otherwise they would have no matter 
of accusation. It is, therefore, a Avholesome practice to 
confess venial sins. But does this mean that one must de- 
tail them with anxious exactitude and exaggerated minute- 
ness, as so many pious souls do ? Assuredly not. They 
who frequently receive the holy Sacraments will, on the 
contrary, draw far more advantage from their confessions 
if they select from their daily, unavoidable imperfections a 
small number of the most prominent and deliberate faults, 
7 



98 Trite Piety the Foundation of Interior Peace. 

and those^, especially, which proceed from a disorderly 
affection or strong inclination ; for example, from some 
aversion, from envy, love of ease, ambition, etc. Of these 
faults let him accuse himself, not with meaningless anxiety, 
but with generosity which does not stoop to extenuate ex- 
pressions or to palliate excuses, but treats self as an enemy 
who is neither to be calumniated nor spared. Thus per- 
formed, our confession assumes a frank and definite char- 
acter : one declares his faults briefly and simply, omitting 
all excuses and histories. This method of confessing has, 
among other advantages, this also, that the particular at- 
tention of the soul is directed to the most important and 
dangerous faults, namely, those whose source is a sinful 
inclination of the heart, and which for this reason one 
would gladly leave unmolested. These faults are just 
those that prove a serious obstacle to our spiritual progress. 
They might even endanger our eternal salvation, as they 
imperceptibly lead to mortal sin. Faults of pure weakness 
or surprise injure the soul far less ; consequently, the con- 
fession of them is much less beneficial. 

But it must be remembered that either to confess or to 
omit venial sin is optional ; and that no one need be dis- 
turbed on this head, he may leave out of his confession what 
he will. 

3. How can one distinguish between mortal and venial 
sin ? — You will tell me that in order to make use of the 
foregoing rules one must be able to discriminate mortal 
from venial sin. Undoubtedly under certain circum- 
stances it is difficult to determine the line of separation. 
But I think that he who lives a truly Christian life will in 
most cases find the distinction not so very hard to make ; 
and in cases of doubt, and for his greater peace, he may 
accuse himself of the sin in question, although strictly 
speaking he is not bound to do so. For anxious, scrupu- 
lous souls, it is in general better for them to be silent on 
their doubts ; yet in this, as in all else, the direction of 
their spiritual guide must be their rule. 



The Sacrament of Penance. 99 

We shall give here a few general directions by which it 
will be easy to distinguish, in most cases, whether a sin be 
mortal or venial. 

To a mortal sin belong three points : 1st. AVeighty mat- 
ter ; — a jesting lie, for example, or a vain, self-conceited 
thought, is not sufficient for a mortal sin. 2d. Full 
knowledge of the evil ; that is, the deliberate consciousness 
that what one does is a mortal sin. This excludes all cases 
in which the sin proceeds from surprise, or in which the 
soul is not full master of her powers ; as, for example, in 
half-slumber, and the like. 3d. Full consent of the will 
to that which the understanding knows to be mortal sin. 
As long as the consent remains imperfect, or we are con- 
scious of a certain hesitancy, a deferring, or a reproach of 
conscience in consequence of our neglect in combating the 
temptation, the sin is only venial. 

But if these three essential conditions to mortal sin are 
really found in a God-fearing soul, they produce disturb- 
ance so violent that she perceives it immediately, and she 
readily comprehends that some great change has taken 
place in her. It will not, therefore, be difficult for her to 
know the mortal sin she may have committed, and which 
is in such violent contradiction with her ordinary life. 

For the rest, to judge correctly of what has passed in 
the soul during temptation, we must remember, says St. 
Francis de Sales, that we do not experience at the moment 
of temptation so lively a horror of it as before and after. 
Consequently we dare not at once conclude, particularly if 
leading a Christian life, that we have actually consented 
because in the decisive moment we felt in a certain way 
irresistibly drawn to the evil. 

To venial sins belong almost all the faults that originate 
in character, that proceed from carelessness or vanity, and, 
in general, all that the majority of good and tolerably well- 
instructed Christians have not defined as mortal sin. ^ 

1 It is, of course, to be understood that in doubtful cases the decision is left to 
the confessor.— rransZafor. 



lOO True Piety the FoMiidation of Interior Peace, 

As to temptations to which no consent has been given, 
one is never obliged to mention them. If we speak of 
them, it is merely because in holy confession we seek not 
only the remission of onr sins, but at the same time in- 
terior direction, counsel, and consolation. Silence on such 
points, however, can never render a confession invalid. He 
who suffers from extraordinarily severe and dangerous 
temptations of long standing does w^ell to disclose them 
from time to time to his confessor, in order to learn from 
him how to act under them. A particular blessing rests 
upon humble obedience such as this. God often rewards it 
visibly by freeing the soul from the attacks of the Evil One; 
but we must not be ever and always returning with trifling, 
every-day temptations, such as distractions in prayer, and 
the like. When once told to despise them, to pass them 
over in silence, the repetition of them is, to say the least, a 
loss of time. 

II. The Examixation^ of Coxsciekce. — In order to 
comply with the rules above mentioned concerning confes- 
sion, a tranquil, reasonable examination of conscience suffices. 
A Christian who lives devoutly and goes often to confession 
need not examine himself on mortal sin at all. Should he 
have had the misfortune to commit it, it will without any 
effort on his part recur to him as something extraordinary. 
It is equally unnecessary to examine one^s self upon a sin of 
thought, whose commission was immediately followed by a 
doubt. 

Daily experience demonstrates how useless are all such 
after-thoughts in this case; for however long one may rack 
his brain, that will never apj)ear clear which just after its 
commission was doubtful and mysterious. The more reflec- 
tion is given to the matter, the more uncertain and doubt- 
ful it will appear, added to which, the soul becomes excited, 
and renews dangerous impressions and sentiments. Who- 
ever wishes to include in his confession such doubtful 
matters, should simply mention them as doubts. 

One who leads a pious life and confesses every week 



The Sacrament of Penance. loi 

ought to find a quarter of an hour more than sufficient to 
examine himself upon venial sins and acquire a knowledge 
of the state of his conscience. As has been said;, strictly 
speaking, one is not bound to confess these faults; and the 
faults that are forgotten can be remitted by every good 
work performed out of confession. From this it may easily 
be seen how unfounded is anxiety on this point. 

III. CoxTRiTiOK. — Contrition, says the Council of Trent, 
is an interior sorrow and horror for sin committed, united 
to the determination to sin no more. But the sinner can 
have true sorrow in his heart without experiencing a lively 
sense of it. Man loves and hates many things without 
knowing it till some occasion reveals his sentiments. A 
son loves his father without being conscious of it ; but let 
the father be taken ill, then love, awakened in the heart of 
the child, fills it with sorrow. The same in a degree holds 
good with pious souls in regard to contrition. We cannot 
judge their want of contrition from their lack of feeling, 
especially as the motives of sorrow, as hatred of sin, etc., 
are of a supernatural nature ; and the supernatural never 
makes so lively an impression on man as the purely human. 
^^It is not necessary, ^^ says Gerson, ^^ that contrition for sin 
should be so keenly felt as grief for some temporal misfor- 
tune. It is enough if our sins displease us to such a degree 
that we are resolved, should the occasion again present 
itself, not to commit them.^^ Let us, then, never confound 
the essential conditions of contrition with the accidental. 
According to its nature, contrition is exclusively the busi- 
ness of the will. At times it works upon the feelings, and 
we are moved to tears and sighs. That is very consoling*, 
and may often prove good and salutary, but necessary or 
essential it never is ; should such feelings be wanting, we 
need have no disquietude. 

True contrition consists in change of heart. The will 
that once clung to evil now casts it off, sincerely bewails 
the sin committed, and would be heartily glad thoroughly 
to undo it. This is the nature of every act of contrition. 



1 02 Trtie Piety the Foundation of Interior Peace. 

With the help of divine grace, refused to none that asks, 
this will not be too difficult for pious souls. But if one 
has, as a general thing, only venial sins to confess, and 
wishes to be quite sure of his contrition, let him include in 
his confession the mortal sins of his past life ; for to be 
sorry for them in this general sense is both sufficient and 
easy, and suffices for the validity of confession. By this 
means we may obviate all anxiety upon this point. 

It is very praiseworthy to seek, as far as possible, for per- 
fect contrition ; but one must not confound the desirable 
with the essential, and become scrupulous when he thinks 
he cannot attain it. Contrition maj be perfect in two 
ways. Either it is perfect in its motive, viz., sorrow for 
sin because by it God is offended ; or it is perfect in its in- 
tensity, that is, in the extent and vehemence of its sorrow. 
Intense sorrow, in its highest degree, remits even the tem- 
poral punishment of sin. But this highest degree is very 
difficult to reach, and in truth is very seldom attained ; 
but it is not necessary to the forgiveness of sins. Contrition 
which possesses only a very low degree of intensity, but which 
IS perfect in its motive, suffices for the forgiveness of sins 
even without the Sacrament of Penance when it cannot be re- 
ceived. How much more abundantly, then, w^ill it prepare 
the soul for the worthy reception of the Sacrament I The 
perfection of contrition is in the motive from which it springs. 
It is not so rare nor so difficult as many think. Before the 
coming of Christ this sort of contrition was held up to men 
as the only penance, the only means of salvation ; and it 
must have been an easy one to fulfil. How much more, then, 
*nay a Christian who leads a God-fearing life and strives 
after perfection feel assured that he possesses such contri- 
tion when he prays God for it, reflects earnestly upon it, 
and then recites the act given in his prayer-book. Suppose, 
for instance, that perfect contrition were really wanting, 
then imperfect suffices for the remission of sin in the con- 
fessional. Imperfect contrition is such as is born of the 
consideration of the heinousness of siu, its evil consequences^ 



The Saci^ament of Penance, 103 



J 



or the fear of hell and purgatory. A few moments^ reflec- 
tion must easily produce such sorrow in a Christian soul. 
From what has been said it follows that the sorrow required 
for a valid and efficacious confession is by no means so 
hard to obtain as many suppose. 

Yet a word upon the way and means by which one w^ho 
frequently confesses should awaken sorrow. He should 
first employ a few moments in begging this grace of God ; 
then cast a glance over the time that has elapsed since his 
last confession ; recall the faults and sins committed in his 
past life ; make a short reflection on the goodness of God, 
His greatness, and benefits; on sin and its evil conse- 
quences, — and the like suitable subjects, w^iich produce ab- 
horrence for past transgressions. If the ]3enitent should 
not feel so much moved as he desires, let him humble him- 
self deeply before God, and lament his sins with his whole 
heart, but without allowing his fears to discourage him. 
Then let him approach the holy tribunal wdth confidence. 
Let him not imitate certain souls who make exertions as 
fruitless as they are ridiculous, in their eagerness to acquire 
w^hat is a free gift of God, and in no way necessary to the 
pardon of sin, viz., tears and sensible devotion. 

IV. The Kesolution. — This is inseparable from true 
and effective sorrow. It may be easily understood from the 
foregoing, that the resolution, at least in regard to mortal 
sin, is rarely wanting to a pious soul who has prepared for the 
Sacrament of Penance, according to the foregoing formula. 
With regard to venial sins, the resolution to avoid them all 
's simply an impossibility ; but the will to avoid the most 
deliberate and to decrease the number of the others, as far. 
as our frailty permits and our measure of grace renders pos- 
sible, must not be wanting. 

It should be especially borne in mind that the good reso- 
lution is a present disposition of the will ; and that, conse- 
quently, with the fear, yes, even with the probable prospect 
of a relapse, particularly into small faults, it is very con- 
sistent to make it. There is no question of the dispositions 



104 True Piety the Foundation of Interior Peace. 

of to-morrow. God alone knows wliat they will be^ for our 
will is unstable and changeable. We are only asked how it 
is to-day, at the moment of our confession. If good, then 
so too was the confession, come what may in the future. 
In order to test your good resolutions, do not employ time 
in picturing yourself in extraordinary occasions, in which, 
perhaps, you will never be placed ; neither must you draw 
up an agreement or treaty with yourself which would excite 
your imagination. This is often imprudent, and moreover 
unnecessary. AVould you on another occasion commit the 
fault you are now on the point of confessing ? No. Very 
well. Then be at peace : you have the requisite dispo- 
sitions for the pardon of your sins ; and you will see by this 
purpose of amendment, joined to the grace of the Sacra- 
ment, that the number of your weaknesses will by degrees 
diminish. It is often, also, useful at confession to make 
a particular resolution upon some special fault that has 
caused the most mischief in your soul since your last con- 
fession, and to which you can afterward direct your par- 
ticular examen. In this way indifference cannot creep 
into the reception of the holy Sacrament of Penance. 

V. Satisfaction. — As regards satisfaction, or the penance 
imposed by the priest, we have to perform it quite simply, 
like any other pious practice. There are no special con- 
ditions to be fulfilled, if the confessor has not expressly 
specified them. 

Now, what is to be gained or learned from all we have 
said in this chapter on the holy Sacrament of Penance? 
Nothing more nor less than that pious souls rarely make 
bad confessions, though they could draw far more profit 
from them if they went to work more quietly. Take, then, 
the following words as a rule of conduct : If you have rea- 
sonably done your utmost to comply with the conditions 
here given for a valid confession, approach the holy Sacra- 
ment with confidence, with a feeling of thanksgiving and 
faith in the blessed fruits thereof. When you have left the 
confessional, think no more of your sins, for God Himself 



The Sac7'ament of Penance. 105 

no longer thinks of them. Do not torture yourself as to 
whether you have forgotten anything, or how you may 
repair your supposed faults in the reception of the Sacra- 
ment, but be entirely at peace. Peace of soul makes us 
strong to aim at the true fruit of confession — the amend- 
ment of life ; anxiety and excitement, on the contrary, 
weaken our strength, because they close the heart. For 
the rest, when we treat of scruples, we shall return to this 
point. May, then, all souls take to heart what we have 
said, and no longer disfigure the Divine Law by substituting 
for it their own false judgment and unreasonable demands ! 



CHAPTER IV. 

Of Holy Communion — What is required to receive 

worthily, and tne Reason that It is for 

so many a Subject of Fear. 




HE reception of the Holy Sacrament of the Altar 
Is^ like confession^ the source of a thousand 
anxieties for certain pious souls. Here, again, 
the fault proceeds from erroneous principles, by which they 
confound the useful and the perfect with the necessary and 
the essential. Indeed, the greater part of scruples before 
Holy Communion is connected with the preceding confes- 
sion. One doubts whether it was valid, and fears to commit 
a sacrilege by presenting himself at the Lord's Table. Who- 
ever, by the study of the preceding chapter, has found peace 
with regard to his confession, will thereby be much less 
troubled at Communion. But there are others who, under 
other pretexts, hold aloof from the Bread of Life. ^^How 
many anxious and scrupulous souls, ^' says Fenelon, ^'^mis- 
erably perish from want of this Holy Food of the soul ! They 
consume themselves in subtle speculations and fruitless ex- 
ertions ; they fear, they tremble, they doubt, and seek in 
vain for a security which is not to be found here below. 
The unction of the Lord is not in them. They desire to 
live for Christ without living in Him and through Him ; 
comfortless and weary, they languish unto death. Near the 
fountain of Living Water, they perish of thirst. They wish 
to practise perfection in all its externals ; and yet they dare 
not nourish themselves with the Bread of Life. They 
would carry the heavy yoke of the Commandments without 
seeking in frequent Communion and in prayer the spirit 
and consolation of those Commandments.'^ 

Our task is to lead those deluded souls back to sound 

106 



Holy Communion. 107 

Christian truths. We shall first briefly and clearly show 
forth fundamental principles ; and then^ upon the author- 
ity of the most reliable theologians, descend to particulars. 
In order not to commit a sacrilege^ and that the Holy 
Communion may be useful and salutary, there is only one 
condition necessary, namely, a reasonable belief that one 
is free from every mortal sin. When a person has sincerely 
revealed the state of his conscience to his confessor and 
received from him the command to communicate, he has 
in obedience the infallible assurance that he is free from 
mortal sin. Let him, then, despising all after fears, ap- 
proach the Table of the Lord. God wilL never reproach 
him with having obeyed his lawful superior. 

However, as the fruits of Holy Communion are pro- 
portioned to the more or less perfect preparation, it is to 
our interest to prepare for it as w^ell as we possibly can. 
But when we possess the essential dispositions, why should 
we be troubled and absent ourselves from the Source of 
Life? It is true, also, that frequent Communion is not to 
be allowed to souls that retain an attachment to deliberate 
venial sin, that are very little concerned about their per- 
fection, and that with voluntary tepidity draw near the 
Holy Table. It is the business of spiritual guides, how- 
ever, to Judge of the state of souls, and to direct them, ac- 
cordingly : the individual has nothing to do but to allow 
himself to be so guided, leaving casuistic decisions to au- 
thorized directors. 

Upright and generous souls, conscious of their own im- 
perfections, and who honestly wish to be better, should, in 
obedience to their spiritual director, communicafce often. 
Your involuntary failings and passing weaknesses do not 
debar you from the Divine Banquet : they do but still more 
increase the necessity of nourishing your soul with the 
Bread of the Strong. 

But some will not admit these principles. They allow 
themselves to be dazzled by a secret pride ; without knowing 
it, they lean more upon themselves and their own merits 



io8 True Piety the Foundation of Interior Peace, 

than upon God^s mercy. Tliey would wish, to draw near to 
the altar in such a state as to be able to say : "\ am satis- 
fied with myself V^ "We should seek to be freed from such 
egotism and self-love. He who has the sensible perception 
of interior grace and consolation approaches Holy Commun- 
ion confidently, especially when he finds himself moyed to 
tears, when he is free from every humiliating temptation ; in 
short, when he beholds nothing in himself but what would 
inspire elevated thoughts of his own virtues. But when, 
in spite of all his efforts, he remains dry, cold, and dissi- 
pated ; or has, particularly in the presence of another, 
committed a fault after confession, — ah, then he will hear 
nothing more of Holy Communion ! Behold a soul filled 
with self. She fancied she was able to resist every humili- 
ating temptation, and she has, since her last confession, 
experienced certain emotions contrary to holy purity ; she 
thought sensible devotion her due, and now she misses it ; 
she would appear at the Lord^s Table spotless in her own 
eyes, and yet some unavoidable encounter drew from her 
almost involuntarily a word of impatience. Ah ! she no 
longer desires to communicate, for the apparent glitter of 
virtue and innocence upon which she rested her whole con- 
fidence has deceived her. Now, an humble soul, on the 
contrary, one that expects all from the mercy of God, 
would at once go forward in obedience, with confusion it 
may be, but without fear, to the Feast of Love. She will, 
humbled and confounded, it is true, but still firmly deter- 
mined to remain faithful to Him, open her poor heart to 
the Heavenly Guest. And certainly all the sensible devo- 
tion and faultlessness with which a vain soul might be able 
to adorn herself would not be so agreeable to the Lord as 
this humble obedience. This truth is of the utmost im- 
portance ; but there are many who would rather not under- 
stand it. They are not satisfied to appear at the Heavenly 
Banquet in the nuptial garment ; they wish, if we may so 
express it, not a single pin to be wanting to their spiritual 
ornamentation. 



Holy Communion. 109 

Other souls even desire to be able to give to themselves 
an account of the progress they make by means of Holy 
Communion. They forget that^ as a rule^ God hides from 
us our progress in virtue in order to save us from the de- 
lusions of self-love. In the beginning of a conversion one 
more easily perceives his advancement^ for he has^ for the 
most part^ only external enemies to combat. He can con- 
sequently say: "\ have gained that victory, curbed this 
passion, renounced that inclination, etc.^^ But later on, 
the progress of the soul is generally hidden, sometimes 
even from the director himself. This may easily happen, 
since true progress in virtue is quite compatible with cer- 
tain v^ry palpable faults which God leaves us for our 
humiliation, and which with all our good- will we are not 
able to overcome. Should one, therefore, turn away from 
the Table of the Lord because he does not perceive in 
himself manifest progress ? By no means. We must not 
only increase, but, above all, support our life ; and to do 
this without nourishment would be impossible. It is a 
sufficient argument for frequent Communion if It preserves 
you in the state of sanctifying grace, and if through Its 
efficacy you continue, it may be weak and imperfect, yet 
sincere and upright. Such dispositions secure your eter- 
nal salvation; and perseverance in them may in general 
be taken as a genuine although imperceptible sign of prog- 
ress. Finally, this question applies far more to the direc- 
tor than to the soul ; for the latter has only to allow her- 
self to be formed in child-like simplicity, assured that no 
other virtue can make her more pleasing to God. 

Let us now hear what the most experienced masters of 
the interior life say on this subject : 

^"^ Whoever seeks an excuse to absent himself from fre- 
quent Communion,'' says St. Francis de Sales, ^^acts as did 
those that were invited to the banquet mentioned in the 
Gospel parable. Their excuses, though seemingly plausi- 
ble, irritated the father of the household.'' Almost all 
the excuses with which souls arm themselves are merely so 



I lo Trtie Piety the Foundation of Iiite^noi" Peace. 

many accusations against themselves. Some say tliey are 
not perfect enough. But how are they to become perfect 
if they turn away from the Fountain of all perfection? 
Others^ that they are too weak. But the Holy Communion 
is the Bread of the Strong, the Bread that gives strength. 
Some shelter themselves under the plea of sickness. But 
in Holy Communion they will find the Physician to whom 
they should say : "^^Have mercy on me, Lord ! for I am 
weak.^^ ^ Many make their unworthiness their excuse. But 
does not the Church herself put into the mouth of the 
purest soul the words of the humble publican : " Lord, I 
am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof ^^?^ 
Others^ again, assert that they are overburdened with busi- 
ness. But such Jesus calls to Him in this Divine Sacra- 
ment, saying : " Come to Me, all you that labor and are 
burdened, and I will refresh you.^^ ^ Many fear to eat the 
Food of Angels to their condemnation. But do they 
not in this very act expose themselves to eternal damna- 
tion by absenting themselves from the Source of eternal 
life ? Finally, many take refuge behind the screen of hu- 
mility ; but this is false humility, for how can we learn 
to receive the Body of the Lord rightly when we so seldom 
do it? Only in much practice can we learn any science 
perfectly. 

^^ Christian soul,^^ says the pious Gerson^ ^^you have in- 
deed sinned by your inordinate attachment to the perish- 
able things of this world; but Jesus Christ, your Spouse, 
commands you by the mouth of the prophet to return to 
Him. He promises always to receive you lovingly. He will 
not despise a contrite and humble heart, had you con- 
temned and abandoned Him a thousand times. If one of 
your fellow-men gave you this assurance, you would believe 
him, you would fly to his arms. It is God who now speaks 
to you. He tells you all this. He promises you forgive- 
ness — nay. He even commands you to return to Him; and 
yet in your mistrust you dare not approach Him! You say 

1 Ps. vi 2. 2 Matt viii. 8. ^ Matt. xi. 28. 



Holy Co}mnunion. 1 1 1 

you are not pure enough. — For that very reason you should 
flee to the inexhaustible Source of all purity, that you may 
be purified. You suffer hunger. — Take the Bread of the 
strong. It will nourish and quicken your soul. You are 
ill and languid. — Approach the most loving Physician, who 
alone is able to heal every malady. You are assaulted with 
constant temptations against holy purity, and no spiritual 
exercise is able to free you from them. — Go to Jesus Christ, 
touch with faith and confidence the hem of His garment, 
receive the Holy Host, His Sacred Body and Precious Blood, 
and you will find strength and freedom. Are you entangled 
in thousands of other temptations which, like the coils of 
serpents, surround you ? — Kaise your eyes to the God-Man 
who bled for you on the cross. His glance alone will heal 
all your wounds. You complain of your poverty and aban- 
donment. — Fly to the holy Tabernacle. You will there 
find Jesus Christ your almighty, infinitely rich, and good 
King, ready to share all His treasures with you. You feel 
weak, faint, and blind. — But do you not know that this 
Heavenly King not only invited the lame and the blind to 
His Banquet, but even compelled their attendance? You 
bewail your inconstancy and many faults. — Eat this Heav- 
enly Food of the soul. It will restore you. It will make 
your heart strong and generous. You are sad. — Drink, 
then, of the Wine that rejoices the hearts of men. Are you 
confused and distracted ? — Seek refuge in Him w^ho calmed 
the raging billows of the sea, and said to the stormy winds: 
' Be still I ^ Fly to Him who alone is the Source of true 
peace; to Him who gives us the assurance that sufferings 
and tribulations are our portion here below, and that our 
heart will never find rest save in Him. We languish in 
banishment far from our eternal home.— Keceive often the 
Bread of xingels. It will encourage you and strengthen your 
faltering steps up the holy mountain of the Lord. What 
do you fear? AVhy are you sad? Why disturbed? Hope 
in God! Put your whole confidence in Him, and He will 
save you from every trouble and tribulation. He Himself 



112 Trite Piety the FoMudation of Interior Peace. 

will nourish you^ and you shall not be confounded. Sigh- 
ing and lamenting, you ask yourself: ' Where is my God? ^ — 
Your God is in the Holy Feast in which Christ gives Him- 
self to you as food, in which the remembrance of His Pas- 
sion is renewed, in which the soul is filled with grace and 
receives the assured pledge of eternal blessedness V^ ^ 

^'^You are always in anguish drawing near to the Holy 
Table. — Subdue your fears by love. You consider yourself 
unworthy to communicate. — Were you to labor millions of 
years to make yourself worthy, you could not succeed. He 
who invites you to come to Him must make you worthy, 
and He will do it if only you carefully cleanse your heart of 
all that is displeasing to Him. Are you not yet prepared to 
receive Him ? — Then put your hand to the work, and do 
what in you lies. Should you find yourself in the unhappy 
state of mortal sin, seek promptly the means of freeing 
yourself from it. Do not defer till to-morrow, for who 
know^s whether you will then be in life? But if there is no 
just obstacle to prevent your communicating, why deprive 
yourself of so great a benefit ? You feel so tepid, so dis- 
tracted, so earthly-minded, so racked by interior anguish, 
pained by scruples, tormented by temptations against holy 
purity, so weak in faith, faltering in hope, cold in love. 
You cannot determine to draw near to Jesus, because you 
discover in yourself no worthy preparation for the reception 
of so honorable, so perfect a Guest. — Ah, say rather that 
you cannot allow yourself to be healed by the best and most 
loving of Physicians ! You should follow the example of 
St. Peter, who, in his astonishment at the miraculous 
draught of fishes, cried out: ^Depart from me, Lord! 
for I am a sinful man.^ ^ great Prince of the Apostles! 
what do these words mean? If you were really a sinful 
man, you would not dare beg Christ to depart from you; on 
the contrary, you would implore Him to remain always near 
you, to heal your wounds and to cleanse your soul from its 
sins. Zaccheus, a pubHcan and sinner, did not act like 

^ (zerson, De Praeparatioue ad Missam. 2 Luke v. 8, 



Holy Commtcnion, 1 1 3 

you. With what fervor and joy he made haste to receive 
the Lord into his house ! And the salvation that came to 
him proves conclusively that he was rights and acted wisely. 
Christian *soul^ you say w^ith the centurion in the Gospel: 
^Lord^ I am not worthy that Thou shouldst enter under 
my roof : speak but the word^ and my soul shall be healed! ^ * 
But not through humility^, but negligently and slothfully 
do you imitate his beautiful example. If it is humility that 
deters you from receiving Jesus^ why does not the same 
humility impel you to obey Him^ when, by His own w^ords 
and those of the priest, He commands you to draw near to 
His Holy Table ? And if the sense of your unworthiness 
keeps you at a distance from Him, why does not the 
thought of His infinite gentleness, goodness, and mercy 
draw you to Him? Approach, then, your Divine Lord, 
and say to Him: ^ Thy mercy, my Divine Lord! has al- 
ways received me graciously.^ ^ Would a sick man act 
reasonably in avoiding the j)resence of a skilful physician 
who could cure him? — You will, perhaps, reply that the 
physician w^ill not permit the sick man to partake of nour- 
ishing food until all the bad humors are expelled; and that 
you too, before receiving the Body of Christ, should make 
yourself w^orthy, according to the words of the Apostle: 
' Let a man prove himself: and so let him eat of that bread 
and drink of the chalice I ^ ^ I am not willing. Christian 
soul, to repress in yon sentiments so noble and just, or pre- 
vent your making the very best preparation for Holy Com- 
munion. On the contrary, I strive to impress upon you the 
necessity of this preparation. I tell you only that in the 
beginning it need not be accompanied by perfect health of 
soul. We may have the spiritual life in us, although still 
subject to small faults. Under such circumstances Holy 
Communion does not make us weaker, but it weakens and 
expels our defects. It is, then, not enough for you to dis- 
trust yourself in your humility: you must also cast yourself 
confidently into the arms of your Saviour. How could 

i Matt. viii. 8. 2 p^ ^^^i g^ • 3 j. Con xi. S8, 



1 14 True Piety the Foiuidation of Interior Peace, 

He refuse to receive you graciously^ since He so mildly in- 
vites you ? And in receiving you so tenderly will He not 
press you closely to His hearty to give you strength and 
health?'^ ^ 

Bellarmine is of the same sentiment. In his '^^Art of 
Dying WelP^ he says with St. Ambrose^ St. Bernard, and 
St. Bonaventure, that the Body of Jesus Christ is not only 
a nourishment for holy and perfect souls, but also a means 
of health for the weak and languid. The Church herself 
has condemned those who assert that all who have not a 
perfect, a pure, an undivided love of God should be kept 
from the Holy Table. ^ It is useless to add anything more 
to this, for such authority should suffice to quiet timorous 
souls. How unreasonable, then, to hold aloof from Holy 
Communion because of temptations and weaknesses, when 
even a mortal sin once confessed cannot deprive us of it ! 

J Gerson. 2 Propos. 23d, damoata ab Alex. VIII. 



CHAPTER V. 

Of Prayer and the Manner of Fulfilling this Duty. 

Of the False Ideas often Formed of this 

Exercise. 

XSTEUCTIONS on prayer are to be found in many 
parts of this book; therefore we shall^ in spite of 
the importance of the subject, treat it very briefly 
in this chapter. So important is prayer, that St. Augustine 
does not hesitate to make the whole perfection of the Chris- 
tian life depend upon it. He says: ^^ Whoever knows hoAV 
to pray well, knows how to live w^ell.^^ Again, let no one 
doubt of the truth of these Avords of the Psalmist when he 
exclaims: ^'^ Blessed be God, who hath not turned away my 
prayer, nor His mercy from mel^^^ Be firmly persuaded, 
then, that mercy will not be wanting to you so long as you 
do not neglect prayer. 

But, alas! many souls entertain entirely false ideas of this 
pious exercise; so that what should conduce to their con- 
solation becomes a species of torture. They burden them- 
selves with a thousand imaginary duties, and, above all, they 
think their prayers must be without distractions, as if it 
depended upon them to curb a restless, unbridled imagina- 
tion. Then they fancy that a vigorous contest is necessary; 
whereas distractions are best combated by contempt. 
Again, they consider it their bounden duty to aspire to the 
sweetest, the most beautiful sentiments, the tenderest effu- 
sions of sensible devotion; and not unfrequently they make 
laughable exertions to weep, to sigh, etc., as if the ebullition 
of the blood had anything to do with the good-will which 
alone has weight with God. And when such souls have, 

J Ps. Ixv. 20. 

115 



1 1 6 Trite Piety the Foitndaiion of Interior Peace. 

through God knows what sort of means, brought themselves 
to those purely human sentiments and emotions of affected 
sensibility, they are apprehensive of its evaporating at every 
movement: they hardly venture to draw a breath, lest their 
whole stock of devotion should escape. In meditation they 
aspire to lofty thoughts, to sublime and exalted considera- 
tions, by which they draw so much the less near to God as 
they are the more satisfied with themselves. Some give 
themselves entirely to vocal prayer. They write for them- 
selves interminable litanies, from whose prescribed form 
they dare not omit a word. Going to Holy Communion, 
they suppress the good sentiments and devout thoughts 
that God gives them, in order to read from their prayer- 
book the twenty pages they have imposed upon themselves. 
To pass over a single one would, according to their code, 
expose them to the danger of destroying the fruits of the 
Sacrament, or even committing a sacrilege. These long 
prayers constitute their devotion. If urgent circumstances 
or claims of charity force them to omit some part, terrible 
fear seizes upon them, and they do not venture to receive 
Holy Communion. If they imagine they have forgotten 
any of the formula, they go over it again and again, once, 
twice, thrice; yes, we have even seen persons for whom the 
whole day did not suffice to finish their morning prayers! 
This is called using the means for the end. Vocal prayer 
is certainly a most excellent thing when practised with rule 
and measure, and according to the intention for which it 
has been instituted. This intention is to assist us when 
our mind no longer furnishes matter for pious considera- 
tions. It will then incline our will and fix our attention 
upon its expression. But when God Himself speaks to us 
and raises our heart to His, let us put away words, and 
be satisfied with the simple elevation of the mind to Him. 
This constitutes the nature and essence of prayer. There 
are pious souls who will not comprehend this. Their notion 
is, that all must follow the same beaten path. If anything 
should happen to disturb the order of their devotions, all 



Prayer — False Ideas of this Exercise. 1 1 7 

is lost. The worst is, that they imagine they have fulfilled 
the whole Christian Law when on their knees they spend 
half the day reciting prayers, in which too often the heart 
has no share. Of the mortification of self-will and the re- 
trenchment of faults there is no question. So self-deceit 
is, by these souls, added to the pain they inflict upon them- 
selves for long hours, all for nothing and against nothing. 

Thus they bring piety into disrepute with worldly people, 
who are inclined to confound true devotion with affected 
sanctity. 

Whoever, in the fulfilment of his duties, mixes up his 
own overstrained ideas with the Divine Law renders the 
performance of duty an impossibility. He makes a fright- 
ful tyrant of God, who is the best of masters. He exhausts 
his strength in useless aims and efforts, and renders himself 
unfit for all good. The amendment of faults by such a one 
is out of the question. He falls into scrupulosity, loses 
sound understanding, and not unfrequently gives up his 
religion altogether, since he sees the impossibility of prac- 
tising it after his own fashion. How could one possibly 
follow so many rules, a single one of which, viewed with 
the eyes of this class of persons, would be sufficient to keep 
him chained to the ground ? — The examples of issues thus 
sad are not so rare as one thinks. 

In contrast with these errors, let us portray the true 
principles of prayer as the greatest masters of the spiritual 
life have given them. Prayer, says Christ HimseltV con- 
sists not in many words. Prayer means simply the raising 
of the heart to God, to say to Him either how much we 
love Him, or how intensely we desire to honor Him, or how 
urgently we feel the need of His assistance. All this is 
wholly independent of the influence of the imagination, 
which one must never confound with the heart. 

^^Our prayer,'^ says St. Francis de Sales, ^^is not less 
useful to us, nor less pleasing to God, when we have many 
distractions in it. On the contrary, it is then more bene- 

1 Matt. vi. 7. 



1 1 8 True Piety the Fomidation of Interior Peace, 

ficial to us than at a time of greater consolation^ since it 
costs us more effort. The only thing required of us in time 
of distraction is the will to conquer, and not wilfully to 
yield/^ — "^^He who wills never to be distracted/^ says Fene- 
lon, *^* is never distracted/^ And one can with truth say, 
the prayer of such a soul is perfect. As soon as you remark 
a distraction let it pass unnoticed. Put it aside without 
taking the trouble to combat it. Turn your thoughts 
peaceably and gently to God. So long as you are uncon- 
scious of distraction, so long is it not a distraction of the 
will; as soon as you become aware of it, raise your heart to 
God! . . . ^''He who during prayer thinks that he is pray- 
ing, ^^ says St. Francis de Sales, "^does not pray with perfect 
devotion, for he turns his attention from God to think of 
the prayer he is making. ^^ Fear of distraction is itself the 
greatest distraction. Nothing in the spiritual life is so 
much to be recommended as child-like simplicity. AVould 
you see God in prayer? — Look at Him, and with renewed 
ardor direct your whole attention to Him. When you turn 
to meditate upon self, you no longer see God, but only self. 
He who devoutly applies to prayer considers not at the 
moment whether he prays or not; he thinks not of his 
prayer, but of God, to whom he prays. We must make a 
difference between the presence of God and the feeling of 
His presence, between faith and the feeling of faith. A 
martyr who, in his moments of suffering, has not his 
thoughts always turned to God does not on that account 
lose this merit, nor does he give to God a less noble proof 
of his loyalty and love. It is precisely the same with the 
practice of the presence of God. We need only say quite 
simply, that He is our God, and that we are His weak, un- 
worthy creatures. St. Francis acted thus. He spent the 
whole night long in fervent prayer, repeating the words: 
" my God! who art Thou and who am W^ This humble 
sentiment of our own misery and the divine goodness sup- 
plies all effusions of sensible devotiou, the absence of which 
is so painful to us; for true prayer is not the result of a 



Prayer — False He as of this Exercise, 1 19 

strong imagination^ nor of an effort of the senses^ but of the 
spirit and the will. 

^MYould you pray with meritorious and desirable devo- 
tion?^'' says the celebrated Archbishoj) of Cambray. ^^ Be- 
gin by considering yourself a poor man^ dejected, miserable, 
naked, almost perishing of hunger. Then think that there 
is but one rich man from whom you can hope for an alms, 
and implore him to give it to you. Again, imagine before 
you an invalid covered with wounds and forsaken by all ex- 
cepting the charitable physician who has pity on him, Avho 
nurses and heals him. This is a true picture of what we 
are before God. Your soul is poorer in heavenly goods 
than any poor creature in earthly treasures, and God alone 
can give you help. From Him only can you implore grace; 
from Him only can you exjDCct assistance. Your soul is, 
without comparison, sicker than that of the poor invalid 
covered with wounds and dying. God alone can heal you. 
All depends upon whether or not you soften God^s Heart 
by your prayers. He is almighty, but reflect that He helps 
only those that urgently pray for His assistance, — yes, I 
might almost say, those that torment Him for it. 

'' Consider, also, the difference between the prayer of the 
proud, self-conceited Pharisee and that of the humble 
publican. The former recounts his virtues, the latter be- 
wails his sins; the former thanks God for his performance 
of good works, the latter complains of his commission of 
evil; the former Avas confounded in his self-righteousjiess, 
the latter went down to his house justified. The sinner 
that deeply humbles himself by a glance at his errors is 
worthy of the divine mercy; whilst many self-righteous souls 
who perform their good works to be seen by men have a 
severe judgment awaiting them. Their good works have 
all been disfigured by pride and self-complacency. 

'^'^As they do some good, they say within themselves: "^0 
Lord, I thank Thee that I am not as other Christians!^ 
In vain self-satisfaction they form a very lofty idea of them- 
selves; they imagine themselves to be highly privileged. 



1 20 True Piety the Fotmdatiojz of Ijiterior Peace. 

predestined souls^ to whom alone are revealed the secrets of 
the kingdom of God. 

'^ Woe to them that pray in this disposition! Woe to us if 
our prayers make us not more humble^ more watchful of 
our faults^ more resigned to God; if they do not infuse into 
us greater love of a more retired and humble life V^ 

From the examples quoted of the beggar in the presence 
of the rich man^ the sick man and his physician^ the sin- 
laden publican^ we may clearly see what prayer is, and in 
what dispositions we ought to pray. '^^And as to distrac- 
tions/^ says Fenelon, '^you must have patience with your- 
self. You must not yield to discouragement when you 
suffer from the inconstancy of your mind, which incon- 
stancy must be endured. Indeliberate distractions do not 
turn us from God : on the contrary, nothing is more pleas- 
ing to Him than the humble patience of a soul that never 
wearies of ever turning anew to Him. When at prayer, 
there is no question of extraordinary, elevated thoughts, 
rapturous visions, nor tender sensibility, which God sud- 
denly gives, and can as suddenly withdraAV. He who places 
the value of his prayer in these things, so flattering to self- 
love, will soon fall into discouragement; for such favors 
vanish as quickly as they come. Their loss will lead him 
to esteem all else as lost. Simple, confiding, and loving 
converse with God is true prayer. Accustom yourself to 
this. Pour out your heart unrestrainedly to the loving God; 
consult with Him about everything that interests you. 
Speak confidingly, openly, unreservedly to Him as to one 
for whom you entertain affection, and who, you feel assured, 
loves you also from His Heart. He who is satisfied with a 
prayer of whose constraint he is conscious, treats with God 
as with a mighty personage Avhom one honors and visits 
only ceremoniously, no affection on either side. Such inter- 
course is marked by studied phraseology. The visitor is 
constrained, and soon becomes weary. He can scarcely wait 
to be formally dismissed. Truly interior souls, on the con- 
trary; commune with God as with the best of friends. They 



Prayer — False Ideas of this Exercise, 121 

do not weigh their words in golden scales^ because they 
know with whom they have to do. They speak to God out 
of the fulness and simplicity of their hearty conversing w^th 
Him of matters connected with His glory and their ow^n 
salvation. They tell Him of what faults they sigh to be 
freed^ what duties they have to fulfil^ over what tempta- 
tions they must gain the victory, w^iat snares self-love lays 
for them;, and what passions or inclinations are threatening 
to domineer over them. They tell him everything, hearken 
to all He says, and in all things follow His counsels and 
commands. Such prayer is not a ceremonious entertain- 
ment: it is a friendly, an unrestrained conversation. God 
is the Friend of the heart, the Father upon whose bosom 
the child lays its tired head, the Spouse to whom giiace has 
united the soul. One humbles himself before God without 
discouragement, fully confides in Him, and wholly mistrusts 
himself; he never forgets himself when there is question of 
• correcting his faults; but he does forget himself, that he 
may never hear the alluring flattery of self-love. ^^ 

In regard to vocal prayer, we are far from dissuading 
souls from it, for it is useful and often very necessary; but 
it should be performed reasonably and properly. If you 
would draw profit from vocal prayer, pray quietly, and try 
to feel what you say. Let your mind comprehend the 
sense of the words you utter. Never hurry to get through 
quickly. Half a psalm said devoutly is better than a dozen 
recited hurriedly. If obliged to interrupt your prayers, be 
not disturbed. Pause gently, and if afterward you have 
time, resume where you left off. 

These are true principles to be applied in prayer. We 
shall refer to them again, although what we have said 
seems to be sufficient. These truths are more soothing 
and consoliag than are the false ideas of many pious souls 
exciting and discouraging. 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Knowledge of God and of One's Self 

the First Condition of Solid Virtue 

and True Peace. 




HE soul that aspires to solid virtue must strive, 
first and foremost, to attain a true knowledge of 
God and of herself. As we have already said, noth- 
ing is more difficult, and at the same time more rare, than 
a just, practical idea of God and of our dependence upon 
Him. Like children of an accursed father, we are con- 
scious of a secret dread at the bare thought of our offended 
Lord and Creator. Like Adam, we flee at the sound of 
His voice, and tremble in His presence as in that of an 
enemy. We draw near to Him with diffidence; we do not 
venture to confide in His mercy, though it is our only 
refuge. Faith, indeed, extols God's goodness to us ; and 
in conformity with duty, we theoretically believe. But 
practically the sentiment of fear prevails more or less over 
us. There lives, as it were, a natural germ of mistrust and 
anxiety in our breasts; and the enemy of our salvation does 
what he can to develop the same. He knows well what he 
can produce from such weeds; and, according to the words 
of Holy Scripture, we can run in the way of the divine 
commandments only when our heart is enlarged by confi- 
dence. We must, above all, labor at stifling our mis- 
chievous, narrow-minded, and cowardly sentiments. We 
must be firmly persuaded that a God who for love of us 
shed His blood, can desire nothing so much as that His 
sufferings should promote our deliverance and eternal 
welfare. Never let us separate the consideration of our 
misery from the exhaustless mercy of the Lord. ''His 

133 



The Knowledge of God and of Ones Self. 1 23 

mercy is above all His works/^' The thought of our 
misery would plunge us into discouragement and despair^ 
instead of inspiring true humility. In another place we 
shall speak of the necessity of greater trust. Here we shall 
remark only in passing how indispensable it is that we 
judge God rightly^ and relinquish sehtiments that reflect 
so little honor upon His loving Heart. We have now come 
to a consideration which will require more elucidation^ 
namely, the knowledge of self. 

Self-knowledge is extremely necessary to us. Indeed, 
the old philosophers regarded it as the foundation of wis- 
dom, and they inculcated upon their pupils the motto, 
^^ Know thyself r^ In fact, this knowledge of our moral 
formation is indispensable in the work in which we are at 
once the material, the instrument, and the artificer. How 
can we draw a model without knowing ourselves perfectly? 
And, alas ! is such actually less difficult than necessary? 
There runs through us all, more or less, a secret vein of 
self-esteem, a sentiment natural to fallen man, in so far as 
it is a reminder of his past greatness. A modern sophist 
held it as an axiom, that man is by nature good. Although 
it rightly applies only to the first man, who came forth 
from the hand of his Creator in the full splendor of original 
justice, yet we are very willing to admit it as true of all. 
Our self-love would not then be founded on so mean a basis. 
We now too easily forget to what sad desolation the sin of 
our first parents has doomed man and his whole posterity. 
An evidence of this is, alas ! strongly presented to the 
world by a class of men who, like the Pharisees of the 
Gospel, allow themselves to be deceived by self-complacency. 
They make a vain display of their virtues, dreaming not 
that they owe everything to Divine Justice. 

Our self-sufficiency is ever ready to sound our own ex- 
cellence. It praises our just judgment, our acute penetra- 
tion, our noble-mindedness, our disinterestedness, our kind 
hearty the equality of our temper, besides a thousand otlier 



1 24 True Piety the Foundation of Interior Peace, 

distinguished characteristics. It draws a portrait very 
flattering to self-love. Although a certain sense of pro- 
priety does not permit us to place ourselves upon a level 
with the greatest men and ascribe to ourselves all their 
good qualities and perfections, yet we raise ourselves at 
least above the multitude, and without much diflBculty 
find many to whom we may readily prefer ourselves. We 
rarely acknowledge the charge brought against us; though, 
for the sake of politeness, we sometimes admit that we are 
not without faults. In short, self, considered at its best, 
must bow assent to the words of Bossuet, who so truly and 
emphatically says : " Though I may be penetrated with 
the sentiment of my own misery and weakness, yet as soon 
as I am contradicted in anything, I find a thousand reasons 
for the justification of my own ideas. The aversion and 
contempt that I had previously conceived of self are gone. 
Self-love grows strong again; or rather, it then becomes 
clear to me that not for one moment was I free from it V^ 

These lofty opinions of self make us presumptuous. We 
become pretentious, we nourish contempt for others ; we 
grow sensitive, suspicious, jealous of others, impatient, 
conceited, and ambitious; in short, that innate pride which 
the Holy Ghost designates as the root of all evil ^ grows 
strong within us. These false notions, in which our self-love 
delights, are so deeply implanted in our heart, that we must, 
as it were, tear out the eyes of our nature if we would see 
the matter in its true light. 

But faith uses quite another language. It unveils to us 
our disgraceful, sin-stained origin, and in it the source of 
that fearful corruption which runs like a noisome weed 
through our energies of soul and body. Faith tells us that 
from youth our senses are inclined to evil; that our passions 
are always leavened with revolt against reason ; that they 
incessantly urge us to the evil which they condemn; and 
that they make the practice of the good, whose beauty they 
recognize^ extremely difficult. It shows us clearly our 

J Jkjclus. :$:. Jo. 



The Knowledge of God and of Ones Self 125 

ignorance in the most important things; it tells us that our 
restless imagination incessantly hinders and perplexes the 
understanding; and that^ finally^ we are of ourselves unable 
to promote the work of our salvation. This faith holds up 
to our view quite a different picture of ourselves; and its 
workings are, likewise, diametrically opposed to those of 
self-love. The true knowledge of self is the source of 
humility, modesty, patience, and diffidence in self; and 
these are the conditions of true confidence in God. He 
only who does not build upon his own strength directs his 
glance straight to God. As upright humility, or the 
knowledge of the truth that God is all and the creature 
nothing, serves as a foundation to every virtue; so this 
humble and correct idea of ourselves makes the blooming 
of all virtues in our soul possible, and brings us into just 
relations with God, with men, and with ourselves. 

But if the knowledge of our depravity is to bear true 
fruits of salvation in us this general idea of faith does not 
suffice. Experience must be added thereto. Long, and in 
the midst of a thousand toils and dangers, must we' endure 
this corruption of which the Gospel speaks; and this our own 
experience clearly proves. Occasions for doing so are never 
wanting to those that would serve God sincerely, and barter 
evil inclinations for Christian virtues. For this end we 
must fight incessantly against the evil that domineers over 
us, that is incorporated with our innermost being. When 
we have given ourselves to this troublesome task, viz., that 
of observing our interior emotions to control them, w^e dis- 
cover the depths of the abyss we explore, and passions of 
which we never dreamed. Ah, how often will not wounded 
self-love recoil at the humiliating spectacle ! We might 
close our eyes and conceal so bitter a truth from ourselves, 
but in so doing we should renounce virtue, which can only 
be acquired at this price. We must courageously, and in 
their full extent, examine the wounds of our soul. This 
humble glance is the most wholesome remedy for its most 
dangerous wound, viz., that of pride. We must pluck up 



1 26 Trice Piety the Foimdation of Interior Peace. 

courage to stare our misery in the face^ in order to learn it 
better. But the sight of our miseries must never be sepa- 
rated from the thought of God^s mercy^ which is infinitely 
greater than our depravity. Discouragement would follow 
an opposite course. 

Not less important is the knowledge of the di3erence 
between emotions that proceed from free-will and those 
that spring from concupiscence. The latter is much more 
the sin of Adam than ours. It has come to us from our 
first parents as an unhealthy inheritance^ that can render 
us unhappy^ but by itself never guilty. Concupiscence^ it 
is true^ incites us with a certain violence to sin ; but the 
continual resistance that we oppose to it constitutes our 
merit. Justly, then, does the Holy Ghost call life here 
upon earth not a continual sin, but a continual warfare. 
For our evil inclinations, the result of original sin, we shall 
not have to answer, but only for sin committed with free- 
will. This most beautiful remnant of our past happiness, 
viz., free-will, by consent to sin, makes common cause with 
it ; for from free-Avill alone springs the moral action, with 
its merit or its guilt. 

But how many souls appear, at least practically, not to 
understand this difference I 

They confound impressions, sensations, attractions, emo- 
tions, with resolutions of the free-will. They forget the 
essential truth, that the will always remains free in the 
midst of the storms that rage in the soul; and that, with the 
assistance of divine grace, it is always able to resist the dis- 
orderly emotions of nature and the attacks of hell. Dear 
reader, imprint these principles deeply on your mind, for 
they are a source of light in the direction of the soul. He 
who does not study them can know himself but half. 
Again, there is here no question of dealing with the specu- 
lative, but with practical knowledge. Experience will 
make this truth gradually become one with flesh and blood. 

A man does not, however, attain to this self-knowledge 
and disengagement in a single day. The celebrated Arcb- 



The Knowledge of God and of Ones Self 1 2 7 

bishop of Cambray unfolds to us quite a different picture 
of such interior transformation. 

^^God/^ says he^ "^ Ogives us the interior light as an intel- 
ligent mother places some work in the hands of her daugh- 
ter. The first task over, then comes a second, and a third, 
etc. Have you done all that God has given you to do? 
Then He will soon give you something else. He does not 
leave the soul idle, or without a means of making progress 
in disengagement from herself and exterior things. But 
if, on the contrary, you have not yet perfectly accomplished 
the first task. He hides what the future has in store for 
you. It is with you as with a traveller who is wandering 
over a wide plain. At first, his view extends no farther 
than to the little strip of blue bordered by the distant hori- 
zon. He fancies that to be the end of his journey. But 
when he has reached it, he beholds a yet broader expanse 
of country stretching out before him. Even so one im- 
agines in the way of disengagement and self-spoliation that 
he has surveyed all at the first glance. He resolves no 
more to turn back, no more to cling to self or anything 
else in the world. He would rather die than even for one 
moment defer his whole-burnt offering ; but in the little 
daily occurrences of life God is constantly pointing out to 
us new and broader fields. We find in our heart a thou- 
sand things which we would have solemnly declared were 
not there. God points them out only by degrees, just as 
He wills to destroy and eradicate them. Every one of us 
carries within him a certain amount of corruption. He 
would die of shame wqre God to show it to him in all its 
abomination. Self-love would, upon beholding it, suffer 
unspeakable throes of agony. I speak not here of the 
vicious, of gross sinners, but of pious souls whose hearts 
are apparently pure and upright. What would they not 
discover in themselves if a ray of true light pierced their 
interior I There would be seen that silly vanity hiding in 
the secret folds of the heart, that self-complacency, that 
pride and self-seeking ; there would be discovered a .thou- 



128 True Piety the Foundation of Interior Peace. 

sand secret aims and motives^ as inexplicable as tliey are 
certain in their existence. We begin to remark them in 
ourselves only when God begins to drive them out of our 
heart/^ ^^Do you now see/'^ says He to us^ ^^ what foulness 
lies concealed in the deep abysses of your heart ? Can you 
still glorify yourself^ boast of yourself V^ 

Let God do with us what He will. Let us be satisfied to 
follow faithfully the light that He will give us at each 
moment. It will bring with it everything necessary for the 
coming instant^ and will prepare us for the sacrifices that 
are yet to meet us. At firsts we have only superficially 
and in a general Avay the good- will to resign ourselves and 
to die to ourselves and to all we love ; but soon shall the 
roots of this tree of death penetrate the surface and strike 
into the depths of our will. They will spread until they 
reach the centre of our hearty and leave no room for 
creatures. They will never cease their growth until they 
drive out all that is not God. 



m 



CHAPTER VII. 

Patience with Self, the Second Requisite of True 
Piety and Peace of Soul. 

|ERELY to know the corruption of the human heart 
is not sufficient. It must also be patiently endured 
without yielding to anger or irritation. This lat- 
ter course is that taken by many souls who^ consequently, 
become discouraged at the sad sight of their miseries. They 
do not recognize in their faults and weaknesses the means 
placed by Providence in their hands for their greater prog- 
ress in virtue. 

St. Francis de Sales says on this subject: ^^Be good^ and 
have patience with every one — above all^ with yourself. . . . 
The virtue of patience is the most unmistakable sign of 
perfection; and they that strive after the pure love of God 
have much more need of patience to bear with themselves 
than with others. It belongs to perfection to bear one^s 
own imperfections patiently. I say bear them patiently ;, 
not love or pamper them. Humility is nourished by 
patience with self. Let us acknowledge the truths that 
we are miserable creatures who can do scarcely anything 
good ; but God;, the All-good^ is satisfied with our continual 
efforts and the little we are able to do. He looks rather at 
the disposition of our heart and our good-will. . . . Pre- 
cious imperfections^ by which we know our misery; which 
exercise us in humility, in self -contempt, and in patience ; 
and which do not prevent God from seeing the perfect dis- 
positions of our heart V 

Oh, how remote are even some most pious souls from the 
sentiments of this great saint ! How they detest their im- 
perfections, even the sight of which forces them down from 

129 



1 30 Trtte Piety the Fou7tdation of Interior Peace. 

their throne of self-esteem^ and whose use for their spiritual 
advantage they do not see ! Their desires aim at what the 
same St. Francis de Sales terms ^^a certain Christian per- 
fection^ conceivable but not practicable^ upon which many 
make long discourses, but which no one puts into practice. ^^ 
Such souls seek before all else, as the support and founda- 
tion of their confidence, the flattering testimony of a con- 
science perfectly satisfied with itself, with the perfection of 
its works, the devotion of its prayers, and which is quite 
conscious of the excellence of its own sentiments. For 
God's views they substitute their own, convinced that He 
could not fail to be pleased with them so long as they are 
satisfied with themselves. Hence all their efforts are 
directed toward this one satisfaction, viz., to please them- 
selves, believing themselves to be God's favorites. They 
nourish their soul with vain self-complacency which they 
appear to regard as a fertile field from which only precious 
fruits are to be expected. They exhaust their vital force 
in their attempts at never losing sight of the presence of 
God ; they sigh for perfect mastery over their imagination, 
into which no troublesome or humiliating suggestion of the 
Evil One must enter ; but which, on the contrary, must be 
always filled with pious and holy pictures. But their heart 
especially must ever be inflamed with the most tender and 
perfect sentiments, ever aglow with sweet devotion and 
burning fervor. Pleasure, joy, and sensible fervor must 
enliven all their good works. They must never be annoyed. 
No repugnance, no impatience, no inordinate passion, must 
ever disturb their interior tranquillity. If they could pre- 
serve such peace, all would indeed be well. They might 
present themselves before God with perfect confidence in 
their own merits — like a princess who, proud of her beauty 
and rich attire, might meet her royal consort with the 
firm assurance that she is pleasing to him. Such souls act 
toward God as toward a selfish friend, on whom one can 
• depend only so long as one's riches or amiable qualities may 
prove attractive. But if, instead of this angelic devotion. 



Patience with Self. 1 3 1 

they feel the weighty corruption^ and weakness of poor 
nature^ all is over with them, everything goes wrong. They 
sink into the abyss of discouragement, that sad state of 
soul which some one has so justly styled ^''suffering self- 
love/^ They turn away from the Table of the Lord. They 
do not venture even to pray. No joy or alacrity of soul ! 
No more confidence I God, with His exhaustless mercy and 
goodness, is still theirs ; but this thought has never been 
their true support. They have sought their centre in 
their own hearts, in their own imaginary virtues. Let 
these desert them and all is lost, all is gone ; they remain 
helpless and in doubt. Try to rouse their courage, and 
you must give them the flattering testimony of self-right- 
eousness possessed before the hour of trial, and about 
which they so often tormented and wearied their spiritual 
director. As soon as they feel that they have again found 
their beloved " self,^^ nothing is wanting to them — they have 
all. In a word, the edifice of their virtue is not established 
on the immovable foundation-stone — Jesus Christ. It is 
built on sand, that is, on themselves, on their own worth, 
on their own efforts; consequently, the first storm sweeps 
all away. The godless leave to the Lord alone the whole 
work of their salvation; they exclude men's co-operation, 
under the pretext that it is unnecessary to do violence to 
self, since God in His goodness could never punish with 
eternal torments. The souls of which we have spoken 
above, whilst condemning this erroneous assertion, plunge 
into the opposite extreme. Certainly not in so many 
words nor speculative belief, for in that case they would be 
heretics; but, alas! they do so in the practical direction of 
their whole life. Their false notions spring from this, that 
they depend wholly upon themselves. This error is so 
much the more dangerous as, with the help of self-love, it 
glides into the heart almost imperceptibly; and besides, it 
closely touches upon the incontestable truth, that man 
without good works cannot reach eternal blessedness. 
But what else is this proud devotion than the piety of 



132 True Piety the Foundation of Interior Peace. 

the Gospel Pharisee? The Lord condemned him^ whilst 
justifying the publican ; since the latter^ in his humility, 
ascribed nothing to himself but his own sinfulness, and 
thus gained a claim to the grace of God. 

Again, let us hear the renowned Archbishop of Cambray: 
^' Our soul/^ says he, ^^ is so infected with self-love that 
the sight of even its virtues defiles it a little; for it always 
appropriates a part for self. It thanks God for His graces, 
though at the same time it feels that it has to thank itself 
that these graces should be given to it rather than to others. 
This manner of ascribing divine graces to one's self is to 
be found in souls otherwise very simple and upright, and 
who are not even aware of tlie theft their self-love is com- 
mitting. Their fault is so much the worse, as they are 
dealing with the purest and highest good, upon which 
account precisely God is particularly jealous. These souls 
cease to attribute their virtues to themselves only when they 
can no longer see them, when in some measure all has 
vanished from them. Then they cry out with St. Peter 
sinking in the waves: ' Lord, save us, we perish ! ' ^ They 
can no longer grasp self; all their efforts are to no purpose. 
They seem to themselves worthy of only rejection, abomina- 
tion, and hatred. This false and Pharisaical self -righteous- 
ness must disappear, that the soul may enter into the true 
justification of Jesus Christ, whom one is never tempted to 
consider as exclusively one's own.'' 

These self-righteous Pharisees are more numerous than 
is generally thought. Their first fault consists in this: 
The Pharisee seeks his perfection in his own works, super- 
stitiously and firmly adhering to the letter of the Com- 
mandments without inquiring into their spirit; and many 
Christians do precisely the same. They fast, give alms, 
receive the holy Sacraments, attend divine service, and pray. 
But they do all without the love of God or of their neigh- 
bor, disengagement from the world, humility, and self- 
denial. They are satisfied with themselves if only they can 

1 Matt. viii. 25. 



Patience with Self. 133 

see before them a faithful record of good worRs. Whoever 
thinks thus is a Pharisee. 

The second fault of the Pharisaical self-righteous is that 
to which we have already called attention. The Pharisee 
rests upon his righteousness as upon his own ^rength. 
This false prerogative offers consolation so great only be- 
cause it gives a firm hold to nature. One finds an extra- 
ordinary pleasure in beholding himself just, in feeling 
himself strong, in contemplating his virtues, as a vain 
woman does her beauty in a mirror. When we so cling to 
the sight of our own virtues we tarnish them, nourish self- 
love and hinder our progress in self-denial. Here lies the 
cause of so many souls, upright of heart and full of the 
best desires, always remaining in the narrow circle of self, 
without advancing one step toward God. Under the pretext 
of watchfulness, they are ever busied with self. They fear 
to lose sight of self as much as others fear turning aAvay from 
God. They desire the ever-present consciousness of possess- 
ing all sorts of harmonious virtues, which promise them 
the satisfaction of feeling that God is well pleased with 
them. This satisfaction enervates them, and this appear- 
ance of virtue renders them more deeply in love with them- 
selves. And yet one should try to free such souls from 
their self-consciousness, instead of allowing them to feed 
upon it; should fortify them against their tender senti- 
mentality, which has in it nothing lasting. This sensibility 
is to them what children's food might be to a man thirty 
years old. It weakens the soul and prevents its growth, 
instead of supplying it new strength. Again, souls whose 
piety and peace of mind depend upon their feelings stand 
in danger of losing all at the first rude blast. Their only 
anchor is sensible grace. Withdraw this, and all falls to 
hopeless ruin. They lose courage as soon as God sends 
them trials. They make no distinction between God Him- 
self and the feeling of His grace. When the latter is with- 
held, they conclude that God has abandoned them. They 
are, according to the words of St. Teresa, blind in giving 



134 True Piety the Foundation of I^iterior Peace. 

up prayer when by trials it begins to purify tlieni;, when 
it is becoming more beneficial to them and more fruitful in 
results. A soul that nourishes herself upon the dry bread 
of desolation and suffering feels poor in all good. With 
her unworthiness and misery ever before her eyes^ she will 
never weary seeking God^ although He may seem to repel 
her. She will seek Him for Himself without seeking her- 
self in Him. Such a soul soars far above one that is ever 
desirous of convincing herself of her own perfection;, who 
becomes disturbed as soon as she loses sight of her advance- 
ment;, and is always longing for God to prevent her with 
new proofs of tenderness. 

Let us follow God upon the dim path of pure faith^ seek- 
ing not to see what He conceals from us. We shall go for- 
ward like Abraham, not knowing whither our steps lead, 
resting upon nothing but our own misery and God's mercy. 
Let us in simplicity and fidelity follow the beaten path, 
ever resolved to offer all we have to God. Let us guard 
against confiding in self and in our own works, sentiments, 
and virtues. Onward to God ! Pause not to cast a glance 
at self, its satisfaction, or its fears. Let us leave to God all 
tliat concerns us, intent only on honoring Him at every 
moment of our life. 

If we would calmly and courageously look our spiritual 
weaknesses in the face, we should derive great benefit from 
them. In one sense our wretchedness is our treasure, since 
it more quickly attracts upon us the fulness of divine 
mercy. Let us prove this by a comparison. What are we 
before God? ^"AVeare His beggars, ^^ answers St. Augus- 
tine. The Holy Ghost Himself corroborates this decision 
of the great Father of the Church when He says by the 
mouth of the Psalmist: " But I am needy and poor: God, 
help me,^^ ^ and " I am poor and sorrowful: Thy salvation, 
God, hath set me up.^^ ^ Yes, of ourselves we famish m 
the most stringent penury. But it is precisely this that 
attracts the divine mercy upon us, when in humble senti- 

» Ps. Ixix. 6. •-» Ps. Ixviii. 30. 



Patience with Self, 135 

ments of our poverty we fly to God for assistance. But 
instead of this^ alas ! by presenting Him our supposed 
spiritual treasures and merits^ we too often try to force 
Him to pour down His favor on us as if it were our due. 

Does lie who is about to ask an alms clothe himself with 
the externals of splendor ? Does he borrow a costly gar- 
ment in which to present himself at the doors of the rich^ 
there to solicit a j)altryalms? Does he display haughti- 
ness ? Does he treat as equals those whose compassion he 
implores? Does he extort alms as the just reward of pre- 
tended services^ as something due his dignity^ his merits ? 
The rich, indeed, need not his services, and certainly such 
perverse dealing on the part of the poor man could have no 
happy results. One would certainly turn away from him as 
from a cunning thief whose appearance showed that he 
wanted for nothing, and who, besides, made himself in- 
supportable by his airs and presumption. It is said in 
Ecclesiasticus: " My soul hateth a poor man that is proud.^^ ' 

And we, too, see that they w^ho implore the liberality of 
their brethren observe quite another course. They endeavor 
to appear humbly before those from whom they ask the alms 
for which they gently and modestly supplicate ; they wait at 
the door patiently even in the worst weather, and come 
back perseveringly when there is hope of getting some- 
thing. No refusal, no unkind answer, frightens them 
away or prevents their return. They show themselves 
thankful for the least that is given them ; they consider it 
always far more than their due ; and if, as so often hap- 
pens, they miscalculate, and are disappointed in their 
hopes, they become neither angry nor discouraged. They 
gain for themselves the good-will of the rich, in whose 
presence they comport themselves as respectfully as we 
ought to do at our prayers. But not yet enough. Far 
from concealing his misery, the beggar displays his indi- 
gence, — nay, sometimes exaggerates it, in order the more 
effectually to arouse the compassion of his benefactor, 
» Ecclus. XXV. 3, 4, 



1 36 Tr7ie Piety the Foundation of Interior Peace. 

The poor wear their rags with a conscious satisfaction. 
They bare their sore limbs and disgusting wounds unasked, 
and sometimes resort to lies and hypocrisy in order to as- 
sume a more pitiful appearance and more efficaciously to 
move hearts to compassion. They act thus because they 
well know what our pride does not wish to understand ; 
namely, that in their sad position is seen a true picture of 
one^s own spiritual condition. Their misery is their only 
treasure, because it alone wins the sympathy which can 
help them. Oh, were we penetrated with these sentiments ; 
did we but give up that pride which leads us to serve God 
as great lords ; did we resolve, in spite of self-love, to re- 
duce ourselves to a state of spiritual beggary, — then only 
would we be able to offer up to God truly humble and 
efficacious' prayers ; then only would we endure our evils 
as sweetly and patiently as is recommended by the saints. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

We should Courageously Labor at our Advance- 
ment, and thereby, without losing Interior 
Peace, draw Spiritual Benefit from our 
Faults and Miseries. 




EUE patience with one^s spiritual frailties is 
neither cowardly compromise nor culpable lazi- 
ness. It rather presupposes two very virtuous 
conditions. The first is the upright^ though in the be- 
ginning weak^ will to fulfil all obligatory Christian duties, 
and for this we always have sufficient grace. The second 
is the strenuous, persevering striving after amendment, 
so that we are always endeavoring, even in less important 
matters, to diminish our faults and to resist our evil incli- 
nations. In a word, patience with self presupposes the 
sincere desire of perfection ; for we speak here to souls of 
good-will, but who are not yet perfect. What way must 
such souls adopt, or what have they to do in order to work 
successfully at their advancement in perfection ? This we 
shall consider briefly in the present chapter. Here self- 
love leads souls upon a most dangerous way, which has 
very appropriately been termed spiritual pride. Spiritual 
pride shows itself particularly under two forms. Either 
one wishes to attain to a higher degree of perfection than 
God has destined for him, and for which the graces allotted 
him are insufficient ; or he would suddenly, so to say, 
spring with one bound to the heights of holiness. Let us 
now view these two forms of spiritual pride separately. 

In speaking of the first, let us remember what we have 
said of the true imitation of the saints. May we never 
belong to the number of those whom St. Francis de Sales 

137 



138 Ti'ue Piety the Foundation of Inte7'ior Peace, 

reproaches with busying themselves to become ^^good 
angels/^ whilst neglecting to become ^^good men^M Let 
ns beware of such deceit. It is so much the more danger- 
ous as it conceals itself under the mask of zeal for God^s 
glory, whilst in reality it is only self-glory that is sought. 
It is not for us to determine our own way. Our whole 
perfection consists in this, that we submit to God^s will 
over us ; and our highest wisdom that, step by step, we 
follow the guidance of His providence. It is not our 
affair to determine in what manner we shall serve God ; 
accordingly, we must not desire to enter upon another 
state than that to which He has called us. In the various 
vocations, there is for each individual soul a particular way 
that is to lead her to perfection. To enter upon it prop- 
erly is not less important for her than the choice itself. 
To impose upon oner's self, without being called thereto, 
severe mortifications and heroic acts of virtue, or to aim 
at the high perfection of the saints, signifies less the imi- 
tation of those great heroes of Christianity than the aping 
of them in a forced, ridiculous, and presumptuous manner. 
This would be to impose upon a child a burden that a 
strong man is hardly able to carry. It would be to expose 
one^s self to the danger of being crushed under the weight 
of falling a victim to sadness and slothfulness, vexation 
and discouragement. The failure of so presumptuous an 
undertaking very naturally produces in us dejection. To 
all I say : " Jfot to be more wise than it behooveth to be 
wise, but to be wise unto sobriety ; and according as God 
hath divided to every one the measure of faith," ^ as the 
Apostle tells us. Let us search with humble, upright 
minds, without ambition, jealousy, and pride, to know 
God's will over us. Let us do with as much generosity as 
judgment all that devolves upon us in fulfilling the Divine 
Will, and let us faithfully co-operate with the graces im- 
parted. It was by this way, and by no other, that the 
greatest saints became holy. 

i Romans xii. 3. 



We should Labor at our Advancement. 139 

The second form of spiritual pride is the impatience 
with which we would suddenly reach a predetermined de- 
gree of virtue. This impatience is not less natural than 
dangerous. There are sick persons who will submit with 
considerable ease to a painful operation provided it be 
done quickly, but who cannot subject themselves to the 
lesser grievance of protracted treatment, in order to regain 
their health. How many souls would, like this sick per- 
son, gladly offer a generous sacrifice if at once they might 
thus secure the possession of the desired virtue ; but they 
cannot bring themselves down to the combat of long years, 
without which virtue is not acquired I Under the false 
appearance of courage lies hidden true cowardice. It 
shows that one neither knows the ways of salvation nor the 
wants of his own nature ; for if nature felt itself freed at 
once from all its weaknesses, it would, like Lucifer, become 
puffed up in its pride, and attribute to itself the glory of a 
victory so lightly won. 

But God understands the matter quite differently. His 
work in visible creation is a true picture of the effects of 
His grace in souls. This is particularly observable in 
nature. We see the gradual, sometimes slow, sometimes 
more rapid, growth of the smallest germ. It is often 
stunted by obstacles from within or others from without, 
against which it, as well as all creatures having the con- 
scious perception of vital power, must struggle, till it has 
reached its development and perfection. Just so grace 
works. It is, so to say, engrafted upon nature to ennoble 
it. And if God sometimes exempts a soul from the rules 
of gradual progress, it shows us that He is all-powerful, 
and untrammelled by any laws ; nevertheless, we have no 
right to claim for ourselves exemption from the general law. 

In the guidance of the chosen people departing from 
Egypt till their entrance into the Promised Land, God has 
given us a true and perfect picture of the ways by which 
He designs to lead souls to perfection. Let us consider 
tliem more closelv. 



1 40 True Piety the Foundation of Interior Peace. 

The Egyptian bondage may represent the slavery of a 
soul weakened in the chains of sin. The glorious land of 
Canaan flowing with milk and honey is a beautiful image 
of spiritual perfection. The journey from Egypt to Pales- 
tine is short; and the Israelites would very easily have found 
their destination if the Lord had limited their wanderings 
to a few days. We shall now consider a soul that^ in the 
beginning of her conversion^ renounces with her whole 
heart her natural inclinations to evil. She^ too^ would find 
it particularly agreeable if from her sad condition she could 
be raised to the highest, to the most exalted virtue. But 
the design of God is difEerent. He leads his chosen people 
into the solitude of the desert, in order to give them His 
commandments, to make known to them His Divine Will. 
He leaves them there to wander forty long years. He per- 
mits them to be oppressed by powerful enemies. He allows 
them to be victorious on the one side and defeated on 
the other, according to their greater or less fidelity in 
prayer, their greater or less docility to the commands 
of Moses, His chosen leader. More than once, the Israel- 
ites deviated from the Commandments of Jehovah, for 
which they were severely punished but never deserted by 
Him. His providence always turned the fault and its 
punishment to their advantage. Finally they reached the 
borders of the Promised Land; and here new trials awaited 
them. At every city on their route they encountered a 
strong enemy to be baffled. Sometimes the Lord granted 
them victory, as before Jericho, whose walls at the blast of 
the trumpet fell to the ground; or again, they endured 
ignominious defeats in punishment of new prevarications. 
When, without recourse to God, they followed their own 
jijdgment, they fell into the snares laid for them by their 
enemies. In fine, the chosen people never fully conquered 
the Holy Land. In their immediate vicinity, — yes, in their 
very midst, dwelt heathens whose constant hostility kept 
them always on the alert, to punish their transgressions of 
the Divine Law, and to force them back to God. 



We should Labor at our Advancement. 141 

This is a true picture of the paths upon which God 
guides the elect to sanctity. The soul must wander through 
the desert of aridity, repugnance, disgust, and desolation 
in its spiritual exercises. It is precisely by such trials that 
God impresses more deeply His Law upon the heart. In 
the solitude of the cloister, as well as in the bustle of the 
noisy world, the saints must bear arms against enemies 
whom they may weaken, but in this life never entirely 
banish. They must not only submit to the involuntary 
emotions arising as consequences from original sin, but 
more or less resign themselves to such experience. They 
shall often fall into real faults. They must be prepared 
for the combat, and support it with all its alternating 
vicissitudes to the end of life. In this way they must 
accustom themselves to prayer, to obedience to their spiri- 
tual guide, and to the humiliating sight of their ow^n 
misery. 

Let all souls take to heart the following words of Eenelon: 
" I hardly wonder, ^^ he says, '' that God permits you to 
commit faults even when you most dread to do so, even in 
moments of sensible devotion and interior recollection. 
It is a true favor from Him when He permits you at such 
moments to fall into faults, for it convinces you of your 
inability by your own strength to do otherwise. What 
more could the greatest graces effect in you than deprive 
you of your high opinion of self, and urge you at every 
moment humbly to have recourse to God? To make a 
good use of the faults that humble you in your own eyes 
is more beneficial than the performance of good works, 
however consoling. 

"^^Give up prolonged and unprofitable refiections upon 
your faults; for such meditations retard your progress. They 
serve only to discourage, and to disturb the head and heart. 
Humble yourself. Bewail your failings as soon as you 
remark them. This done, put them aside quietly, and pro- 
ceed on your way. Again, do not note down every fault with 
Pharisaical exactitude. Do not look upon God as an enemy 



142 Trtie Piety the Foundation of Intei'ior Peace, 

that lays traps for you, or as a spy that watches you only to 
ensnare you in some fault. See in Him rather the best of 
fathers^ who loves you and will make you happy. Kepose 
in Him the fullest confidence. Call upon His mercy with 
the most perfect conviction that reliance on creatures and 
self is empty and deceitful. 

" God sends you humiliations to make you humble and 
pliant. When you are not humbled by such trials^, you 
force God, thbugh against His will, to deal still harder 
blows, and to let you feel more sensibly your pitiful weak- 
ness. Be simple and pliant, and you will appease His 
Sacred Heart. Say to Him with confidence, ' An humble 
and a contrite heart, God, Thou wilt not despise.^ ^ 
You will see, then, that the Lord will be moved, for He 
cannot withstand the submissive confidence of His little 
ones. '' 

Let us hear St. Francis de Sales on this subject: ^" Our 
daily faults and imperfections,^^ says he, ^"^ should certainly 
abase and humble us before God. . . . But we must not 
be satisfied with this; for humility and self-contempt are 
virtues which serve as a means to rise to union with God. 
Self-imposed acts of humiliation w^ill help us on to it; but 
this will count for little if not accompanied by entire resig- 
nation to God, as St. Paul recommends in the words: ' Put 
oflE the old man, and put on the new man.^^ We must 
not remain naked: we must put on God. When we have 
fallen, we must cast a rapid and sorrowful glance upon our- 
selves only the better to mount up to God again by a vigor- 
otis act of love and confidence. Our confusion for our 
faults ought neither to sadden nor disturb us. Were it to 
do so, it would be a sign that self-love is writhing. You 
are displeased with yourself because you are not perfect; 
but such displeasure arises from the love of self rather than 
from the love of God. Try to elicit acts of confidence, even 
if your feelings tend the other way. Say to God: "^0 Lord, 
although I feel no confidence in Thee, still I know that 

1 Ps. 1. 19. 2 Eph. iv. 22, 24. 



We should Labor at our Advancements 143 

Thou art my God^ and that I am wholly Thine. I place 
all my hope in Thy goodness^ and I remit myself wholly 
into Thy hands/ 

^^It is hard^ certainly^ to awaken snch acts^ though by 
no means impossible. It is on such occasions that we should 
show our loyalty to the Lord. You may find very little 
pleasure or satisfaction in such acts^ but you must not be 
concerned on that account. Tell me not that your lips 
utter what your heart does not feel ; for if your heart did 
not will it^ your tongue could not frame a word. Have 
you succeeded in awakening an act of confidence ? Then 
be at peace. Speak to God of other things without further 
attention to interior distractions and embarrassment. To 
conclude, I repeat once for all, it is very good to mortify 
yourself by a glance at your miseries and imperfections. 
But one must not stop there and lose courage. He must 
at once raise his heart to God, and confide in Him rather 
than in self.^^ 

These principles are so important, and yet so little under- 
stood, that we cannot dwell too long upon them. We quote 
what the Abbe Grou says on this subject in one of his 
learned books: '^^ Souls that would really and truly belong 
to God, are often very much astonished at the faults they 
commit through human frailty. They allow themselves to 
be disturbed ; they yield to anxiety, discouragement, and 
false shame. All this is the result of self-love, which does 
more harm than all other faults. If you wonder that you 
have fallen, you do very wrong, and you show how little 
you know yourself. On the contrary, your astonishment 
should be that you have not coramitted greater and more 
numerous faults. Thank God for those from which He 
has preserved you. You fall into disquietude as often as 
you perceive a fault, lose interior peace^ suffer intense 
anxiety, are almost distracted, and busy yourself with it 
for hours and days. Is this right? Assuredly not. You 
should never allow yourself to be disquieted. When you 
feel that you have fallen, tranquilly rise again with a heart 



1 44 True Piety the Foundation of Interio7^ Peace. 

full of love for God. Return to Him^ implore pardon, and 
think no more of it until you go to confession. Should you 
even forget the fault in the confessional you must not be 
troubled. Or, supposing that, through false shame, you 
can scarcely declare your faults to your father confessor. 
AVhat will he think of me ? you say ; I have so often promised 
him to do better. AVhen, with child-like openness and hu- 
mility, you acknowledge your failings to him, he will esteem 
you only the more highly ; but if you declare them with 
difficulty and repugnance, he is forced to think you proud : 
he will lose confidence in you, since he sees your want of 
candor. But I now come to the worst. You torment 
yourself, as St. Francis de Sales says, that you have become 
impatient. What misery ! Do you not see that this is 
pure pride? You are full of shame and vexation, because 
in' the hour of trial you displayed less strength and vigor of 
soul than you had previously ascribed to yourself. You 
would like to be free from faults and imperfections in 
order to contemplate your own spiritual beauty, and to be 
able to say: For a day, nay, for a whole week, I have had 
nothing wherewith to reproach myself ! Finally, you lose 
courage ; you give up your pious exercises one after an- 
other; you consider perfection as soriiething impossible, 
and you despair of attaining it. You will at last say to 
yourself : AVhat use is there in overcoming myself, always 
watching over myself, aiming at interior recollection and 
mortification of the senses, since I neither decrease the 
number of my faults nor become better ? This is one of 
the most cunning devices of the enemy. Would you escape 
it ? l^ever, then, yield to discouragement, no matter into 
what faults you may have fallen. Say to yourself : Should 
I fall twenty, nay, a hundred, times a day, I shall rise again 
each time and proceed on my way. What matters it that 
you have fallen, provided only that you reach the end ? God 
will not reproach you on that score. It often happens that 
stumbling is the consequence of running too fast. Our 
aeal is so great that we do npt give ourselves time to make 



We should Labor at our Advancement, 145 

use of certain precautions. Timid and reflecting souls al- 
ways wish to see where they are about to step ; they take 
roundabout ways at every moment in order to avoid danger- 
ous places ; they are always fearful of incurring even the 
slightest stain. In this way they do not advance so quickly 
as others, and death overtakes them half-way. The holiest 
soul is not the one that commits the fewest faults, but the 
one that has the most courage, the most generosity, and the 
most love. It is the soul that overcomes herself the most, 
that fears not to stumble or even to fall and soil herself a 
little on the way, provided only she advances. 

St. Paul says : " To them that love God, all things work 
together unto good.^^ ^ Yes, all things work to their good, 
even their faults, sometimes very great, which God permits 
in order to cure them of vain self-confidence, to point out 
to them what they are, andof what they are capable. David 
recognized that his sins had strengthened him in mistrust 
of himself. ''^It is good for me,^^ said he to God, ^^that 
Thou hast humbled me ; for thereby have I learned Thy 
justifications.'^ ^ The fall of St. Peter was for him a most 
useful lesson. It humbled him, and prepared him to receive 
without danger the richest gifts of the Holy Ghost, and to 
become the-head of the Church of Jesus Christ. In the 
midst of the glorious success of his apostolate, St. Paul 
remembered that he had once been a blasphemer and per- 
secutor of the Church, and thus he was pieserved from 
vain-glory. And for the same reason God Avould not free 
this great Apostle from a humiliating temptation, Avhich 
served as a counterpoise to his sublime revelations. 

If God knows how to draw such benefits from even the 
gravest crimes, who can doubt that He makes use of our 
daily faults for our sanctification ? God permits, as all 
teachers of the spiritual life say, certain faults even in the 
holiest souls, of which, in spite of all their efforts, they 
cannot wholly correct themselves. He will by these w^eak- 
nesses make them see and feel what, without His grace, 

1 Romans viii. 28. « Ps. xliii. 20. 

10 



146 Tr tie Piety the Foundation of Interior Peace, 

they would be. He wills that they should not become 
proud on acGoiint of the graces He bestows upon them ; 
that^ on the contrary^ they should ever receive them in 
humility^ and preserve diffidence in self. They will there- 
by escape the snares of self-love^ maintain fervor by prayer, 
practise watchfulness, confidence in God, and have con- 
tinual recourse to Him in prayer. When the child, eager 
to walk alone, falls, it comes back to its mother with 
greater alacrity to receive comfort from her. It is taught 
by that fall to remain by its mother^s side. 

Our faults often become for us occasions for great acts 
of virtue, which otherwise we could not practise. God 
not unf requently leaves us those faults for this intention. 
You give way to your humors, you are testy with your 
neighbor, you yield to impatience. God permits it thus, 
thereby to give you the opportunity to practise an act of 
humility by which you repair your fault and make good 
the scandal you have given. The fault was committed in 
the first heat of excitement ; the satisfaction with deliberate 
self- victory. The reparation is, therefore, more agreeable 
to God than the fault was displeasing to Him. 

God makes use also of our faults and exterior imperfec- 
tions to conceal our sanctity from others and to procure us 
humiliations from them. 

He is a skilful Master. Let Him act ; His work will not 
be a failure. Firmly resolve carefully to avoid all that 
could in the least displease Him. And if in spite of your 
resolution you commit a fault, regret it for His sake and 
not your own. Love the humiliation which arises from it, 
and pray the Lord earnestly and perseveringly that every 
one of your false steps may redound to His greater glory 
and your own good. He will hear your prayer, and you 
will by this means advance more rapidly in virtue than if 
you led a life apparently regular and holy ; for the latter 
would be less conducive to the uprooting of self-love. 

If God desires anything good from us, we should not 
refuse it under the pretext that by so doing we might 



We sJioiild Labor' at our Advaricemeiit, 147 

commit faults. A pious work imperfectly performed is 
better tban one not done at all. You refrain so frequently 
from giving a necessary rebuke^ because you fear becoming 
excited or violent ; you avoid intercourse with certain per- 
sons, lest their faults put your patience to the test. But 
how will you acquire virtue if you avoid the occasions of 
practising it? Do you not, by such reserve, commit a 
greater fault than that of which you were afraid? En- 
deavor to act through a good intention ; fly whither duty 
calls you ; and be persuaded that God is sufficiently indul- 
gent to pardon a fault committed in His holy service, and 
to which the desire of pleasing Him exposed you. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Of the Transition from a State of Sensible Devo- 
tion to that of Pure Faith and Spoliation. 




KEN a soul that has lived in a state of innocence, 
or for a time has borne the yoke of sin, turns 
with upright will to the service of God, a state 
of sensible devotion and spiritual consolation is usually 
hers in the beginning. This is necessary, to lighten the 
first difficulties met in the path of virtue. In this state 
such souls feel powerful impulses of grace which strengthen 
and support them. 

They gain victories without effort ; they are conscious 
of their progress, and from this consciousness springs either 
great facility in the exercise of virtue, or in case of diffi- 
culties a more active, more courageous zeal in surmounting 
them. The state of sensible devotion shows itself more or 
less in a soul, according to the degree of perfection to which 
God has called her. It is good, — yes, in the beginning, even 
necessary. Still it is a state free neither from danger nor 
imperfection. The struggles, the victories, the virtues, 
the pious sentiments, of which the soul cannot fail to be 
conscious, produce in her by degrees such self-sufficiency 
and complacency that all further advancement in the path 
of perfection will become an impossibility. If she remain 
in the peaceful enjoyment of such a state she will fall a 
victim to the subtle whisperings of pride. But now comes 
a time in which God withdraws that sensible consolation, 
for which withdrawal, however. He has gradually prepared 
her. The soul is not thereby shorn of grace. The solid, 
the essential part of His grace, as well as her previously 
acquired virtues^ are still hers. The intention of Almighty 

148 



Transition from Devotion to Pure Faith, 149 

God in so doing is to unite the soul more closely to Him- 
self, though she in some manner loses the consciousness 
of this- union, or at least ceases for a time clearly to un- 
derstand and taste its sweetness. 

What pen can describe the desolation of a soul thus pass- 
ing from light to darkness, from sensible consolation to 
spiritual disgust and impotence, the very thought of which 
is sufficient to deject ? She shudders. Desolation seizes 
upon her. She looks upon all as lost, and at every moment 
is ready to proclaim herself vanquished. Spiritual exercises 
are performed with repugnance, because she sees in them 
naught but defeats. Her weakness is such that she doubts 
whether or not she has complied with even her essential 
obligations. The most trifling difficulties frighten her, 
the remembrance of past fervor consumes her, and with 
Job she cries out. "^^ Who will grant me, that I might be 
according to the months past, according to the days in 
which God kept me T' ' 

Oh how fatal might not such trials prove to interior 
peace ! And yet they establish in the soul the secure 
foundation of true peace, since they besiege its cruel enemy, 
pride, in its most hidden lurking-place. In confirmation 
of what we have said, let us again hear the great Archbishop 
of Cambray : ^^ Nearly all who would render service to 
the Lord,^^ says he, '^ think in so doing of their own inter- 
est. They desire to gain, and not to lose ; they seek to be 
consoled, and not to sufifer ; to possess, and not to want ; to 
increase, and not to diminish. And yet the whole interior 
life consists in losing, in sacrificing, in diminishing, in 
being despoiled, in becoming little, in renouncing those 
gifts of God to us so sweet, so as to hold firmly to God 
alone. We are like the sick, who desire vehemently to be 
restored to health. How many times in the day do they 
feel their pulse ! The physician is called in to calm them. 
He must prescribe all kinds of remedies, he must assure 
thenj of their improvement. We do nearly the same thing 

1 Job xzix, 2f 



150 True Piety the Foundation of Interior Peace, 

in regard to our spiritual physician. We go round and 
round in the narrow circle of every-day virtues, and never 
take one bold step beyond. The spiritual director acts 
like the physician. He quiets^ consoles^ encourages^ speaks 
kind words^ fosters our tender delicacy for our dear self^ 
and orders only mild^ trifling remedies to which nature soon 
becomes accustomed. As soon as God takes from us the 
milk of little children^ namely^ sensible devotion, we think 
all is lost. We prove thereby that the means make us for- 
get the end, and that we seek self in all things. Privation 
is the bread of the strong. It strengthens the soul, uproots 
self-seeking, and offers it a holocaust to God. But, alas! no 
sooner have we tasted this bread than we grow sad and 
dejected. All has gone to ruin, in our estimation ; whilst 
in reality all is being purified, is striking firmer root. We 
are prepared to let God make out of us what He will, pro- 
vided only it is something very grand and perfect. But so 
long as we will not give ourselves up entirely to this anni- 
hilation, we cannot become whole-burnt offerings, con- 
sumed by the flames of divine love. We would enter upon 
the life of pure faith, and yet retain our own judgment ; 
we would become little children, and still be great in our 
own eyes. . . . What a picture of false piety \ 

"\i we are willing to belong to God only whilst we find 
joy and consolation in His holy service, we resemble the 
multitude that followed the Lord, not for the sake of His 
teaching, but for the multiplication of the loaves. We say 
with Peter : ^ Lord, it is good for us to be here ; and let us 
make three tabernacles.^ ' But, like the Prince of the 
Apostles, we know not what we ask. Intoxicated with the 
sweets of Thabor, we disown the suffering Son of God^ we 
will not follow him to Calvary's Mount. We snatch at 
spiritual illumination, sweetness, and sublime elevations ; 
the mind would see and understand ; the heart, feel and 
taste. Does that mean death to self ? Is that the just 

^ Mark ix. 4. 



Transition from Devotion to Pure Faith. 151 

man who^ as St. Paul says^ lives by faith, and is nourished 
by it ? . . . 

'' Some souls never get beyond the state of spiritual con- 
solation. Others, on the contrary, God leads further by 
depriving them of that with which He had once nourished 
them. Such souls easily fall into a state of dryness, dis- 
gust, and weakness. Then everything becomes burden- 
some to them. Ko friendship, no conversation, no inter- 
course, can ever again console them. They feel that God 
has withdrawn from them, with all His gifts and graces. 
The pangs of death are theirs ; a sort of despair takes pos- 
session of them. They are insupportable to themselves, 
and life becomes tedious. In God^s love even, and in His 
holy Law, they feel no more joy. They are like the sick 
fainting from want of nourishment, and yet experiencing 
naught but disgust at the sight of the daintiest food. 
Speak to them of friendship — the mere sound of the word 
causes pain and brings tears to their eyes ; a trifle over- 
powers them. They themselves know not what they want. 
Their friendships and their sufferings are like those of little 
children. They can give no reasonable cause for them. 
What they have felt or what thought, vanishes like a 
dream at the moment in which they utter it. Every word 
on the state of their soul seems to them a lie ; for what 
they say ceases to be true as soon as they begin to speak 
about it. Consistency exists no longer for them. They 
cannot answer for anjrthing, promise anything ; they have 
not even the power to describe what takes place within 
them. Their humors are as little under their control as 
are the cell and its furniture subject to that of a religious. 
Changing and mutable, nothing belongs to them as their 
own, and their heart least of all. It is incredible how this 
childish instability, these puerile whims, humble a soul 
formerly so wise, so strong and virtuously proud in her own 
eyes. Now, God does not permit souls to suffer thus for 
His own pleasure. He tries them only to purify ; He 
merely deprives them of the graces which they appropriate 



1 5 2 Trite Piety the Foundation of Liter ior Peace. 

to themselves, in order to give them back to them a hun- 
dred fold as soon as He sees they may be possessed without 
danger. 

^'^Our virtues need purging, for their sight nourishes in 
us the natural life. Our disorderly nature finds even in the 
graces that cost her most the constant nourishment of her 
own free choice. Self-love feeds not only on macerations 
and humiliations, on prayer and self-denial, but also on 
great sacrifices and unlimited spoliation. It is on this ac- 
count that God permits that we should lose sight of even 
the consciousness of our giving up all to Him; for only 
painful trial ends our purgation. . . . 

^^Do you now see how necessary it is that God should 
gradually deprive you of His gifts of grace? They, even 
the purest and choicest, are useful only in the beginning to 
advance in virtue. They would soon become to you ob- 
stacles to higher perfection. Your grace is sullied when 
you ascribe it to yourself. Therefore God takes from you 
what He once gave. He will not deprive you of it forever. 
He will return it purer and better when there is nothing 
more to be feared from your faults. 

^MVe cling to the sensible; hence our delusions. Many 
souls are so blind and so sensual that they grasp at feeling, 
in order to reach security; and yet these feelings deceive 
us, because they are a bait for self-love. So long as we en- 
joy sweetness and consolation, we know no fear of sin. In 
our superabundance we exclaim: ^ Never shall I waver !^ 
But let the intoxicating draught be withdrawn, and, alas, 
alas! we think all is over. By acting thus we substitute 
our own happiness, our own lively imagination, for God^s 
good pleasure. Xaked faith is the only safeguard against 
such deception. Trust not to your imagination, your sen- 
timents, your own taste. Aim not at the brilliant, the ex- 
traordinary. Cling to God alone in pure, naked faith in 
the simplicity of the Gospel. Take from the hand of the 
Lord the graces that He gives you, but do not attach your 
heart to thejn. Befrain from judging of your state, Obey, 



Transition from Devotion to Pure Faith. 153 

in the ready belief in your own capability to eri% and in the 
ability of others to direct you; finally, let your every move- 
ment be stamped by simplicity and a good intention accord- 
ing to the light of faith. Do this, and be assured that you 
are on the right road. 

^^Such a practice will be to you the best sign that your 
way is much securer than would be that of sweetness and 
particular lights. Make the experiment, and you will soon 
see that it is so. If you courageously follow it, it will lead 
to perfect spiritual death. Beautiful sentiments and in- 
terior consciousness of virtue indemnify self-love for exterior 
sacrifices, and nourish subtle self-seeking. But are you 
interiorly and exteriorly divested of self? exteriorly by 
Providence, and interiorly by self-spoliation? Then is your 
martyrdom perfect. You are, in consequence, secure from 
every species of deceit. Kead the ' Following of Christ ^ (bk. 
iii., ch. vi.), and you will understand that when God takes 
away interior sweetness from you, it should be your conso- 
lation to be deprived of all consolation. how agreeable 
to God is a crucified soul when she descends not from the 
cross, but dies thereon with her Saviour !^^ 

These words of Fenelon point to the end to be attained, 
if by cowardice the soul does not set limits to her perfec- 
tion. This end means ^^ death to self.^^ The soul reaches 
it when she exercises herself long and perseveringly in self- 
denial and an unlimited surrender to God. It means again 
when, as the '^ Following of Christ^ says, ^^She gives all for 
all.^^ Some particulars upon this species of spoliation will 
be given in the coming chapter. 




CHAPTER X. 

Of Self-renunciation and the Total Surrender of 
Self to God, the Last Condition for Ob- 
taining Constant Interior Peace. 

lIE soul that strives after perfection can belong to 
God as entirely as is necessary to her peace^ only 
when she denies herself; that is^, when in the 
sight of her Creator she acconnts herself nothing. ^MVho- 
ever does not renounce all/^ says Christ, ^'cannot be My 
disciple/^ ^ We shall now clearly unfold in what this re- 
nunciation consists. 

All can readily perceive that forbidden gratifications, un- 
just possessions, vulgar vanity, must be renounced; for the 
Law of God commands us this. But it will not be so read- 
ily comprehended that one should also renounce lawful pos- 
sessions which, because of his position, he is even obliged 
to preserve. Such possessions are a good name, the inde- 
pendence accruing from a respectable income and happy 
domestic relations, the consolations of friendship, and a 
thousand similar things. 

In all such instances renunciation consists in detach- 
ment of heart. Conscientiously and without anxiety they 
must be preserved and used with moderation; but one's 
happiness must not be founded upon them. The use of 
such goods is reasonable when accompanied by moderation, 
though at the same time real necessities must always be 
distinguished from imaginary ones. ]Si"ature would gladly 
procure the latter; it would indulge the one and refuse the 
other all nourishment. What does it mean, for instance, 
after the example of Christ, to renounce those persons who 

1 Luke xiv. 33. 

154 



Total Sttrrender of Self to God. 1 5 5 

are the dearest to us^ and whom we are even bound to love ? 
It means to love them only for God; to enjoy their friend- 
ship with rule and measure^ and according to necessity; to 
banish from our heart all passion and jealousy; to be pre- 
pared to lose or be separated from them^ if God so wills; 
and to seek our true peace of heart not in our friends^ but 
in a more worthy object. By such a mode of procedure 
we, according to the advice of the Apostle, use creatures 
and the world as if we used them not; we do not desire to 
enjoy, but only to take what God gives. It preserves peace 
of soul amidst the thousand vicissitudes of life; because in 
loving resignation to the Lord we abandon all that we prize 
or possess. 

But granting that we have in this manner given up all 
our surroundings, then comes the last great sacrifice — that 
of self; for the main cause of all our anxiety and suffering 
is our blind love of self, which borders on idolatry. Only 
when we shall have sacrificed our idol shall we find healing 
and peace. God lays His hand upon us first exteriorly, 
taking from us the creatures to whom we cling inordinately. 
By so doing He lays the indispensable foundation-stone. 
Then He goes further, and attacks us interiorly, in order 
to free us from self. We loved all these things only be- 
cause of self; and this self God now pursues without rest 
or mercy, if only He can lead us to a higher degree of per- 
fection. Sensual, worldly men find the privation of sensi- 
ble satisfaction fearfully hard; for they, if not in theory, at 
least in practice, consider the body the most important part 
of self, and pamper it accordingly. But when this weak- 
ness is overcome there still remains hard work till we have 
renounced our understanding. Our judgment, our wis- 
dom, and virtues are to us what beauty is to a frivolous 
worldling. We delight in them, we esteem them very 
meritorious. We congratulate ourselves upon being wise, 
enlightened, and free from the errors of our neighbors. 
What refined self-complacency lies in this! How much we 
should displease God if we deliberately allowed self-love to 



156 Trite Piety the Foundation of Interior Peace- 

hold such sway in bur heart! We must^ on the contrary, 
renounce also the natural satisfaction that our interior ad- 
vantages may produce in us. 

^^ Remember well/^ says Fenelon, ^Hhat the purer and 
more exalted God'^s gifts are, the more jealous He is of 
them. He had mercy on the first man, but the rebel angel 
He cast without mercy into the depths of the abyss. The 
angel and the man had sinned by pride. But the angel had 
received more perfect gifts from the Lord; therefore his 
revolt was more severely punished than was man^s dis- 
obedience. 

^'^But you ask me how you can practise this self-denial. 
To this I answer that, as soon as the necessity of self-denial 
is acknowledged by the will, God takes the soul by the 
hand, and by every event of daily life leads it onward in 
the path of renunciation. 

^^Not by painful reflections and continual effort of the 
mind does one renounce himself. Only he who preserves 
himself from every species of self-seeking, who does not 
wish to dispose of himself according to his own ideas, is 
ever truly lost in God. 

^^ You feel an emotion of pride, of self-satisfaction, of self- 
confidence, of impatience with the weaknesses of others, or 
with the weariness incidental to your vocation; you feel 
tempted to seek your own satisfaction, follow your own at- 
traction instead of the voice of your guide. All such emo- 
tions must be relinquished as entirely as a stone dropped 
into the depths of the water. Eecollect yourself before God, 
and do not act until your soul has regained its calm. But 
if distracting occupations or your vivid and excitable imagi- 
nation prevent this instantaneous interior recollection, you 
must by the uprightness of your will and your sincere desire 
aim at self-possession. The will to recollect one^s self is a 
sort of recollection. It suffices to despoil the soul of her 
own will, and to make her a pliant tool in the hand of God. 

^^But if in an unguarded moment some purely natural 
and sinful emotion escape you, be not discouraged. Pro- 



Total Surrender of Self to God. 1 5 7 

ceed peacefully, bearing in God^s sight the humiliation en- 
tailed by your fault, but going to Him full of confidence. 
Your interior confusion humbles you before God, and 
makes you die to self. You best repair your fault Avhen, 
yielding at once to the influence of grace from which your 
infidelity had for the moment withdrawn you, you overr 
come the chagrin and vexation of self-love. 

'^'^The main thing for you is, by perfect simplicity in your 
dealings, to renounce your own wisdom and be prepared 
to relinquish the favor, esteem, and approbation of men 
just as often as God wills it. It would indeed be impossi- 
ble to enumerate the peculiar and special sacrifices that 
God may require of a soul. They are as varied as are men 
themselves. Every soul has its own, in accordance with its 
necessities and the designs of God. How can we know of 
what God. wills to divest us, since w^e know not to what w^e 
cling ? Each is held by innumerable ties wiiose existence 
he himself could never guess. We realize how closely we 
clung to them only when God takes them from us. 

'' The renunciation that God requires of us is not gen- 
erally what w^e ourselves, perhaps, thought. God surprises 
us in the most unexpected manner ; in trifles it may be, 
but trifles that w^ound self-love most sensibly, and inflict 
upon it a true martyrdom. Great, heroic acts of virtue 
would flatter pride. But to rejoice at insignificant and 
repeated sacrifices calls for more self-abnegation, more 
mortification, than would do many great ones ; and this 
cheerful pliancy in little things is precisely what God 
exacts of us. He allows the soul no rest. He twists and 
turns her on all sides, until He has made her perfectly 
pliant and flexible. 

You must bear from others and from yourself all possi- 
ble annoyances. You have spoken too freely, or you have 
forgotten to say what was most necessary ; you are j)raised, 
censured, forgotten, elevated to the flrst rank, then de- 
posed ; you are judged falsely, and you cannot justify 
yourself; you have spoken to your own advantage ; a trifle 



158 True Piety the Foundation of Inter ioj^ Peace. 

perplexes you, renders you irresolute;, throws you off your 
guard ; you grow angry like a little child, and give open 
expression to your vexation ; your dryness gives your 
friends subject of offence ; you are, without foundation, 
jealous and mistrustful, and you own your childish jealousy 
to the object of it ; you speak freely to certain people, and 
you are not understood ; you appear inconstant, artful, 
and not to be depended upon ; you feel dry, indolent, 
inert, distracted, with nothing to counteract these miseries, 
for even God has become wearisome. These are some 
examples of what may afford matter for interior renuncia- 
tion. I have placed them here just as they occurred to 
my mind. The list, however, is by no means exhausted. 
There are hosts of others, which God in His wisdom will 
mete to each one as seems good to Him. . . 

^^One word with regard to a temptation to which the soul 
is often exposed when endeavoring to practise self-denial. 
Certain selfish intentions pursue her in speech and action. 
Eeflecting afterward upon self, she thinks she has yielded 
to self-complacency, sought after human applause, relished 
the consolations of virtue too much ; in fine, she sees self 
everywhere. This greatly afflicts a conscientious soul, and 
she laments over it. To calm her, one must remind her 
that good and bad depend entirely upon the will. As 
long as such emotions of self-seeking are involuntary, they 
do not derogate from the perfection of self-renunciation, 
do not make us displeasing to God. They are but seldom 
voluntarily indulged by a soul truly divested of self and 
wholly given to God. They, on the contrary, who in spite 
of their sincere piety are not quite dead to the pleasant 
things of life, to a good name, to the sweetness of friend- 
ship, still seek self a little in all these things ; not blindly 
and impetuously, to be sure, but occasionally, and so to say, 
in a passing way. This is proved by their chagrin, their 
deep affliction when threatened with the loss of these 
things. We cling to self without knowing it. Only a 
blow aimed at it discovers to us the depth of our heart and 



Total Surrender of Self to God. 159 

forces us to make a sacrifice. The moderate use of tem- 
poral blessings secures to us as direct a step toward self- 
renunciation as a loss borne peacefully. . . 

" There comes a time in the spiritual life when one can- 
not clearly understand one^s own secret self-seeking. God 
permits the interior light to shine only brightly enough to 
give power to sacrifice it. Jesus Christ addresses the soul : 
' I have yet many things to say to you^ but you cannot 
bear them now.^^ AVe see our good intentions and our 
good-will ; but we should be shocked if God allowed us to 
see the numberless cords that still bind us down. We do 
not, indeed, cling to them with full deliberation, with a 
determined will ; we do not say to ourselves : ' I cling to 
this, and I will cling to it.^ But still we hold on to it. 
We fear to dive into our heart lest we should too plainly 
see how tenaciously we are clinging to that idol. We feel 
our own weakness ; and yet we venture not to pursue the 
knowledge of it too far, lest we might grow to know it too 
well. We are sometimes suddenly inflamed with an im- 
patient zeal for our own perfection, we desire to discover 
every obstacle thereto in order to sacrifice it ; but this zeal 
is as rash and indiscreet as that of St. Peter when he cried 
out, ' I am ready to die for Thee !^ though a few moments 
after found him trembling in the presence of a weak ser- 
vant-maid. We desire to behold all our weaknesses at one 
view ; but God spares us the sight by dimming for the 
present moment our interior light. He will not permit us 
to see what we cannot then and there uproot. Ah, the 
admirable indulgence of Divine Goodness ! He never 
urges us to a sacrifice without giving us the necessary light ; 
and He never grants us that light unaccompanied by the 
strength necessary for the sacrifice. Until that hour strikes 
for us we are with regard to such a sacrifice like the Apos- 
tles who, when our Lord spake to them of His approach- 
ing sufferings, understood Him not. Upright and vigilant 
souls may still be in ignorance of the secret spoliation God 

J John xvi. 12 



1 60 True Piety the Fottndation of Interior Peace. 

has in reserve for them^ and which he keeps concealed 
until they are advanced a step farther in pure faith and 
disengagement from self. AVe must not aim at outstrip- 
ping God. Let us be true to Him in all that we know^ 
for then only shall we be in peace. He will enlighten us 
upon whatever it may be good for us to know. . . 

*^^ Happy he who in the work of self-denial never hesitates 
to follow grace ! Happy he who only fears not following 
quickly enough ! Happy he who always performs in the 
cause of self-conquest rather too much than too little ! 
Happy he who^ when asked for a sample^ courageously pre- 
sents the whole fabric to God^ and allows Him to shape it 
to His own liking ! Happy he who esteems himself noth- 
ings and who never implores God to be forbearing with 
him I And lastly^ blessed is the soul whom the prospect 
of such despoilment does not intimidate I 

^^Some may imagine such a condition unendurable ; but 
oh^ what a mistake I It is then that the heart is free^ then 
that it is enlarged, then unshackled by rule or bounds. 
Then does it, in accordance with God^s promise, become one 
with Himself I . . . 

^^0 my God I Thou alone canst give true peace I The 
more unsparingly self is sacrificed, the greater is the souFs 
freedom. When, without delay or hesitancy, she is ready 
to lose all, then does she possess all. Her condition is a 
picture of the blessedness tasted by the heavenly spirits. 
They are forever lost in God, and their blissful rapture 
will endure eternally I 

'' Spouse of souls! Thou dost give to Thy servants here 
below a foretaste of that felicity. Created things can but 
circumscribe the heart; but when it renounces attachment 
to creatures and self, it enters, in a manner, into Thy in- 
finity, l^othing holds it back; it becomes more and more 
perfectly lost in Thee; it expands as Thou dost fill it, and 
without nausea it is ever satiated! Such service, my 
God! is truC; pure adoration, in spirit and in truth. Thou 



Total Stcrrender of Self to God. 1 6 1 

seekest sucli adorers; but alas^ how rarely dost Thou find 
them! 

^"^When a soul has once given herself up entirely to the 
Lord, she aims not at multiplicity. in her works, but all 
that she does is well done. With perfect confidence she 
remits the future to God. She accejots unconditionally 
all that God wills in the present or for the future, and she 
closes her eyes to useless anticipations. She endeavors to 
execute God^s will at every passing moment. Sufficient 
for the day is the evil thereof; sufficient also the good. 
The daily fulfilment of the Divine Will is the coming of 
God^s kingdom in us, and at the same time it is our daily 
bread. It would be an infidelity to anticipate the future 
which God holds concealed from us. It lies in His hand. 
He will make it sweet or bitter, long or short. Let it fall 
out as it may, the soul always prepares for it in the most 
perfect manner by renouncing self-will, to conform to the 
will of God. As the manna in the desert was possessed of 
all kinds of flavor, so this union with the Divine Will com- 
bines in itself all graces and sentiments suitable to every 
condition to which God may subject you. 

'' When the soul is prepared for this, she begins to gain 
ground, to plant her feet firmly on the edge of the abyss. 
She is as peaceful with regard to the past as she is in view 
of the future. Though esteeming self the worst of God^s 
creatures, yet she knows that God is ready to pardon. She 
casts herself blindly into His arms. She forgets self, and 
perfect self-forgetf ulness is perfect penance; for it is the 
martyrdom of self-love. It deals the death-blow to every 
attachment. How lightly the soul springs along when re- 
leased from the oppressive load of self under which she 
once well-nigh sank. With astonishment &he beholds how 
straight and simple is the way that lies before her. Once 
she labored under continual restlessness and spiritual con- 
straint; an ever-new activity was deemed requisite. Now, 
however, she sees that but little is to be done; that, with 
no thought of the past or of the future, it is enough for 



1 62 True Piety the Foundation of Interior Peace. 

her to look with perfect confidence to God as to a Father 
who leads her at every moment by the hand. If a passing 
distraction hides Him from view, let her turn again to Him 
without alarm, and again she will learn what He expects 
from her. A fault is committed — ^let her turn again to 
Him whom she has abandoned, let her atone for it by an act 
of sorrow, for sorrow is the proof of pure love. The trans- 
gression arises before her and fills her soul with horror; but 
such humiliation is both good and useful. The humbled 
soul turns back to God in recollection, peace, and confi- 
dence; the proud, on the other hand, bitterly and subtly 
discusses the fault and all that led to its commission. 

^^ Experience is the best teacher. A simple, peaceful re- 
turn to God will bring with it more light, will advance the 
soul far more, than useless and weary lamentations. As 
soon as you perceive that you have committed a fault, turn 
simply to God. Do not torture yourself fruitlessly; do 
not reflect so much upon it, nor weigh the matter so nicely. 
When in your spiritual desolation you make reflections, it 
is with yourself that you take counsel. Ah, wretched con- 
sultation in which Go(J holds no part! 

^^Who will extend a helping hand to lift you from the 
mire? Yourself? Ah, it is you who have plunged into 
that out of which you are powerless to extricate yourself! 
And yet more — you yourself are the mai'sh, the cause of 
your misery. How can you hope to rise, since you are ever 
busy with self, ever nourishing self with the sentimental 
consideration of your own misery? This constant return 
upon self, this ceaseless reflecting upon self, is nothing 
more than a lamenting over self. A single God ward glance 
would bring far more peace to the troubled heart than this 
unending occupation with self. Eenounce self, and you 
will find peace .... But how can this, this rising above 
self, be brought about? I answer, in this way: Turn 
quietly to God, and accustom yourself, little by little, to 
the habitual remembrance of Him. . , J^ 

Yet one more important observation. This and the pre- 



Total Stirrender of Self to God, 163 

coding chapter treat of the purification of the soul by re- 
nunciation and interior disengagement. Though intended 
for all, according to the degree of virtue to which God 
calls them, yet they find their full realization only in those 
souls whom God has separated from the multitude, in order 
to lead them to higher perfection. For these in particular 
' we have inserted the foregoing instructions. In spite of 
this, however^ all may draw profit from them if, in submis- 
sion to a spiritual guide, they apply them to themselves. 
It would indeed be to err directly against this doctrine if 
one should make it a pretext to absolute self-guidance ; if, 
without a spiritual director, he should strive after this or 
that degree of perfection. As to this latter point, it is only 
for him who directs us to determine. He who assumes his 
own guidance exposes himself to dangerous illusions, and 
grants free play to self-love. God does not work in all 
souls alike. There are some to whom He leaves a certain 
return upon self, because it will support them in the exer- 
cise of the virtues, and in a certain degree help t) purify 
them. It would be imprudent and dangerous to deprive 
them of such support. It would be to take milk from a 
child that cannot yet eat solid food. Kever should a di- 
rector take from a soul what serves*as her nourishment, 
what God has left to support her weakness. To anticipate 
grace is to destroy its work. Fenelon says: ^'^Itis better 
to wait and open the door with a key, than to break the 
lock through impatience."^ These beautiful words should 
often be taken to heart by the spiritual guides themselves. 



PAKT III. 

OF THE MEANS FOR PRESERVING PEACE 
AMID SPIRITUAL WEAKNESSES. 



CHAPTER I. 
Various Instructions on these Means. 

FIRST POINT. 1 
Fundamental Maxims on Liberty of Spirit. 




SOUL that seeks naught but persecution and con- 
tempt^ desires or loves no earthly good, fears no 
temporal misfortune, flies from joy as from poison, 
and finds her happiness in suffering, is capable of receiving 
great consolation from God. But her confidence in Him 
must be firmly established ; as soon as she rests upon her 
own strength, her support is gone. Great was the courage 
of St. Peter when he protested that he would die with 
Christ. His resolve was certainly most praiseworthy ; but 
his zeal was defective in this, that it proceeded from his 
own will, — hence his fall. Thus it is that, without the 
assistance of grace, we can neither determine nor accomp- 
lish any good thing. 

Our soul must be free from all desires foreign to her per- 
fection. She must be wholly attentive upon what she 
thinks or does, never divided between the duties of the 
present and those that may come upon her in the future. 

1 This point, as well as the following, is taken from tli3 " Treatise on tbe Peap^ 
of the Soul/' 



Various Instructions on Preserving Peace, 165 

A man is not forbidden to arrange his temporal afEairs 
wisely and carefully. Kightly understood^ these things are 
in accordance with God^s will^ and they in nowise hinder 
either interior peace or spiritual progress. To utilize 
properly the present moment^ no method is better than to 
present our soul before God empty of all desires^ by which 
we appear before the Divine Majesty as poor beggars with 
nothing to do and no means of earning anything. 

Perfection consists in that detachment of spirit which^ 
free from all ties either within or without^ wholly and en- 
tirely depends upon God alone. 

SECOND POINT. 

Of the Snares by which the Fiend seeks to Rob us of Peace, 

and of the Means by which to Defend Ourselves 

against him. 

. The Evil One tries to rob us^ above all things^ of Christian 
humility and simplicity ; therefore he would instil into us 
confidence in ourselves^ in our own efforts^ when troubles 
and anxieties come upon us. He wills that we prefer our- 
selves to others^ and thus^ little by little^ despise our neigh- 
bor. By vanity and self-esteem the devil loves best to 
gain admittance into a soul. The most skilful way of de- 
fending ourselves against him is to intrench ourselves be- 
hind humility. As soon as shame and self-contempt van- 
ish from the hearty we lose the power to oppose the demon 
of pride. Let him once take possession of the will^ and he 
rules as a tyrant^ and with him reign all vices. 

Watchfulness is not enough; prayer must be added to it^ 
for it is written : '^^ Watch and pray !'^ Peace is a treasure 
to be secured by these two means only. 

Let us never permit our mind to be disturbed or dis- 
tracted by anything. To an humble^ peaceful soul every- 
thing is easy. Difficulties disappear before her^ and she 
perseveres in good. But a restless soul effects little^ and 
that little in the niost imperfect manner. She soon wearier 



1 66 Preservmg Peace Amid Spirihial Weakness. 

of virtue^ and slie suffers continually^ though without 
merit. 

Suppose that a thought of confidence or one of mistrust 
in God's mercy presents itself^ — which should you enter- 
tain ? which should you banish ? Ah! nourish the thought 
of loving confidence in God. Look upon it as a messenger 
from heaven, and rejoice in its presence. But banish as a 
suggestion of the Evil One every thought that arouses in 
you a want of confidence in the infinite mercy of God. 

"When the tempter assails pious souls, he represents to 
them that their daily faults are far greater than they 
really are. He Avhispers that their duties are never rightly 
fulfilled ; that their confessions are imperfect, their Com- 
munions tepid, their prayers worthless. By such scruples 
he aims at rendering them anxious, disquieted, and impa- 
tient. In the same way he tries to withdraw them from 
their devotional exercises, by suggesting the thought that 
all is of no avail, that God no longer regards them, that He 
has entirely forgotten them. Nothing can be more untrue 
than such insinuations. The distractions, the interior dry- 
ness, and the defects of our spiritual exercises may be- 
come extremely useful to us, if we only understand that, 
under certain circumstances, God expects nothing from us 
but patience and perseverance in the good begun. St. 
Gregory says : ^^From the prayers and good works of a 
soul deprived of spiritual consolation God receives tlie 
truest pleasure that He can possibly have in His creatures. 
The soul must, however, persevere courageously in her 
spiritual exercises in spite of coldness, disgust, and indiffer- 
ence. Her patience prays at such moments, making her as 
agreeable to God as if she actually prayed as she desires. ^^ 
The same saint adds : ^^ The interior darkness of such a 
soul is resplendent with brilliancy in the eyes of God. Her 
patience under interior suffering constrains Him, in a 
manner, to bow down to her and fill her to overflowing 
with His grace. '^ 

Never, therefore^ omit doing a good work, however great 



Various Instrzccizojts on Preservvig Peace. 167 

may be the repugnance experienced in it. To act other- 
wise^ would be to obey the Evil One. 



THIRD POINT. 

The Soul when Disturbed should strive to Regain her Calm 
as soon as possible. 

Whenever you commit a faulty great or small^ were it 
even voluntary or a thousand times in the day^ observe the 
following rules : 

As soon as you perceive the faulty cast a glance upon your 
weakness. Turn humbly to God^ and say to Him in peace- 
ful^ loving confidence : ''•'Thou seest my God! what I 
have done. Thou knowest of what I am capable. What 
can sin produce other than sin? But Thou hast granted 
me the grace of repentance. Pardon me also my faulty 
and grant me Thy assistance never more to offend Thee V' 

Having prayed thus^ lose no time in thinking whether 
or not God has forgiven you. Turn in humility and peace 
with your former confidence and tranquillity of mind to 
your occupations^ and do not reflect upon what has oc- 
curred. Should you fall frequently^ you must at the 
last fall do precisely what you did after the first. This 
will bring to you a twofold benefit : firsts you will at every 
fall turn back to God^ who^ like a good Father^ is always 
ready to receive you ; and secondly^ you lose no time in 
disquiet and vexation^ which might so disturb the soul as 
to retard her return to peace and quiet. If they who^ on 
account of their faults and failings^ are so often disturbed 
and discouraged could comprehend rightly these secrets 
of the spiritual life^ they would see how much time they 
waste^ how much injury their agitation does them^ and how 
different is their sad condition from that of a discreet, 
humble, and peace-loving heart. 



1 68 Preserving Peace Amid Spiritual Weakness. 



FOURTH POINT. J 



Of Watchfulness over Self. 



That we may learn to watch over ourselves^ and yet not, 
be too much occupied with self^ the following remarks will 
be of use: 

The wise and prudent traveller is attentive to his steps. 
He carefully examines the road before him^ though without 
turning to consider the progress he has made; for that 
would be a loss of time. 

A soul that God really leads by the hand (for we are not 
sj)eaking here of those that have not yet learned to Avalk — 
those that are still seeking the way) should, in peaceful and 
child-like simplicity, carefully watch over her steps. This 
w\atclifulness must be limited to the present; and it must 
consist solely in attention to the will of God, and not in 
returns upon self. We need not try to obtain certain 
knowledge of the state in which we are, since God does not 
will such certainty to be ours. 

Would we walk unremittingly in the presence of God? 
Then we should never cease watching over ourselves. Such 
vigilance is, however, full of simplicity, love, peace, and 
disinterestedness; whilst that which seeks only satisfaction 
with self leads totuothing but pain and disquiet. We must 
walk in the light of the Lord, and not according to our own 
illumination. We cannot consider the sanctity of God 
without experiencing a holy horror for the slightest fault. 
Walking in the presence of God and with interior recol- 
lection, we miist also attend to examination of conscience. 
This prevents carelessness, and makes confession easier. 
But this examination of conscience must be made simplj^, 
gently, and without disquieting returns upon self. 

1 This point is from Fenelon. 



Various litstrttctions on Preserving Peace, 169 



FIFTH POINT. 1 
Of Mistrust of Self. 

Mistrust in one^s own strength is so necessary in tlie 
spiritual life, that without it one cannot overcome the least 
perverse inclination. We must be thoroughly impressed 
with this truth, for we are only too prone, though withont 
good reason, to esteem ourselves something. Self-confidence 
is a consequence of our nature's corruption; but the more 
natural it is to us, the more difficult it is to understand it. 
God, w^ho sees all, abhors it. He would have us convinced 
of the truth that we possess no grace or virtue that does 
not proceed from Him, the source of all good, and that 
without Him we are not able even to think anything pleas- 
ing to Him. Mistrust of one's own strength is a gift of • 
Heaven, which God grants to souls whom He loves — some- 
times by holy inspirations, or again by hard interior suffer- 
ings; sometimes by almost unconquerable temptations, or 
finally by means known to Himself alone. Notwithstand- 
ing the gratuitousness of the favor, it is His divine wish 
that w^e do on our part what we can to acquire this virtue. 
It will infallibly be granted to us if we make use of the 
four following means: 

The first is often to place before our eyes our lowliness 
and nothingness, acknowledging that of our ow^n natural 
strength w^e are incapable of accomplishing anything good 
and meritorious for heaven. 

The second means is that we humbly and earnestly pray 
to God for this essential virtue; for He only can give it to 
us. We must acknowledge that it is not only w^anting to 
us, but also that of ourselves w^e are quite incapable of ac- 
quiring it. We must kneel down at Our Lord's feet, and 
implore it of Him with a firm confidence of being heard. 
Lastly, we must patiently await the granting of our j)eti- 

1 This and the two following poijjts A.re takei^ from the " Spiritual Combat" of 
iBcupoIi, 



170 Preserving Peace Amid spiritual Weakness. 

tion, and persevere in prayer as long as His divine provi- 
dence pleases. 

The third means is to accustom ourselves gradually to 
diffidence in self^ to the unreliableness of our own judg- 
ment^ to fear the violence of our evil inclinations and the 
innumerable multitude of our enemies. The latter are 
without comparison more artful^ stronger, and more skilful 
in the combat than w^e; yes^ they even change themselves 
into angels of light, to lay snares for us in the way of sal- 
vation. 

Tlie fourth means is, after every fault to turn our gaze 
inward and consider carefully the extent of our weakness. 
God permits our faults only that, being enlightened by a 
new light, w^e may more sincerely acknowledge that we are 
miserable creatures, that we may learn to despise ourselves 
and arrive at the sincere desire of being despised by others. 
Without this last means we cannot attain to mistrust of 
self, a virtue that rests on humility and the experimental 
knowledge of one^s own misery. 

He who would draw near to the Fountain of Light, the 
Uncreated Truth, must know himself thoroughly. He 
must not be like the proud, who open their eyes upon 
themselves only when they have unexpectedly fallen into 
some shameful sin. AVhen milder means did not effect 
what His mercy intended, God permits them such experi- 
ence in order to cure their presumption. 

God ordinarily allows every man to fall more or less, ac- 
cording as he is more or less proud; yes, I even dare to as- 
sert, were one as free from pride as was the Blessed Virgin 
he would never fall. Turn your faults into a means of 
gaining self-knowledge. Ardently implore the Lord to en- 
lighten you, that, seeing yourself as you are in His eyes, 
you may no longer entertain so high an opinion of your 
own virtue. Otherwise you will relapse into the same 
fault, — yes, into still greater ones, perhaps, that might en- 
danger even the salvation of your soul. 



VarioiLs Insh'uctions 07i Preserving Peace. 171 



SIXTH POINT. 
Of Confidence in God. 

We have shown that mistrust of self is extremely neces- 
sary in the spiritual combat. But if this virtue stood alone 
and unsupported, one would be disarmed and vanquished 
by the enemy, and w^ould soon take to flight. It must 
stand side by side with confidence in God; for the Lord is 
the source of all good, and from Him alone must we expect 
victory. If it be true that of ourselves we are nothing, 
then only prospect of dangerous defeat is before us, and we 
have every reason to distrust our own strength. But if, 
convinced of our weakness, we generously confide in God, 
we shall with His assistance gain great advantages over our 
enemy, since confidence calls down the grace of Heaven 
upon us. Four means are at our command for the ac- 
quiring of this most necessary virtue of confidence: 

The first is, that we humbly ask it of God. The second, 
that with eyes of faith w^e attentively consider the infinite 
power and wisdom of the Creator, to whom nothing is im- 
possible, whose goodness knows no bounds, and w^ho, from 
the overflowing measure of His love for His servants, is at 
every moment ready to send them all possible graces, 
whereby they may lead a pious Christian life and gain the 
victory over self. 

The only thing that He expects from them is, that they 
have recourse to Him in perfect confidence. And what is 
more just? For long years the Good Shepherd has un- 
weariedly pursued the lost sheep. He follows after it on 
hard, thorjiy paths, with exertion so great as to cost Him 
His blood and His life. If at last He sees the sheep re- 
turning with the design of following His guidance, will He 
turn away the eyes of His mercy, because its sincere and 
upright will is still weak? Will He not rather carry it back 
on His shoulders to the sheepfold? let us not doubt 
of this ! The Lord with joy inexpressible takes up the 



172 Preserving Peace Amid Spirihial Weakness. 

strayed slieep^ and invites the angels of heaven to rejoice 
with Him. 

And if He so assiduously sought the drachma of the 
Gospel as to search the whole house to find it^ will He repel 
the soul that, like the sheep strayed from the fold, makes 
ready to return to Him ? Christ is the Spouse of our soul. 
He continually knocks at the door of our heart, and desires 
nothing more ardently than to find an entrance. His 
greatest happiness is to give Himself to us, and to heap His 
favors upon us. Now, hoAV can we believe that He will 
refuse us entrance if we rightfully long for such a grace? 
Let us open wide the door of our heart and implore Him 
to make us worthy of His visit. 

The third means to attain confidence is to recall fre- 
quently such passages of the Holy Scripture as excite to 
this virtue. Passages of this nature are not difficult to find. 
The AVord of God repeats to us a thousand times the con- 
soling assurance that he who confides in the Almighty shall 
not be confounded. 

The fourth means by which we acquire confidence in 
God as well as mistrust in ourselves is, that in every good 
work, every temptation, and upon all occasions in general, 
we fix our eyes on the one hand upon our own weakness, 
and on the other upon the goodness, the omnipotence, the 
wisdom of God. We shall then meet courageously the 
most laborious works and the severest combats, for the fear 
of our own weakness vanishes before confidence in the as- 
sured help of the Lord. These two weapons united to 
prayer place us in a position to undertake the greatest 
enterprises and gain the grandest victories. 

SEVENTH POINT. 

A Mark of True Confidence in God and Mistrust of Self. 

A soul filled with self easily believes that she is in posses- 
sion of both the virtues mentioned above. But she not 
unfrequently errs, and the error is most clearly evident 



' Various Instrtictioiis on Preserving Peace, 173 

when she has committed a fault. If she is then disturbed 
and troubled^ if she loses all hope of progress in virtue^ it 
is a sure sign that she had. placed her confidence in herself, 
and not in God. And the greater the discouragement, the 
less of these virtues does she possess. 

If, on the contrary, the soul that mistrusts herself and 
places her confidence in God commits a fault, she is by no 
means astonished, disquieted, and vexed; for she immedi- 
ately recognizes it as a consequence of her weakness and 
her want of confidence in God. Her fall, on the contrary, 
increases her mistrust in her own strength and her reliance 
upon the assistance of the Almighty. The soul abhors her 
sin above all things, she condemns the passions or bad 
habits that gave rise to it, she is keenly pained at having 
oflEended her God; but her sorrow is peaceful. It does not 
prevent her from returning to her accustomed exercises and 
pursuing her enemies till death. 

Disquietude after the commission of a fault is sometimes 
looked upon as a virtue. This is an error. Although such 
disquietude may be accompanied by some regret for sin, it 
nevertheless originates in secret self-conceit, springing 
from vain self-confidence. When a soul that thought her- 
self strong in virtue, one that despised temptation, is 
taught by experience that she, like all others, is frail and 
sinful, she is astounded at her fault as at something quite 
extraordinary; she yields to anger and discouragement. 
And why? Because she sees her support, that is her self- 
confidence, destroyed. 

This never happens to humble souls. They have no 
high opinion of themselves, they lean upon God alone. If 
they fall they are neither surprised nor disquieted; because 
they clearly see, by the true light that beams upon them, 
that their faults are a natural consequence of their own 
weakness and inconstancy. 



1 74 Preserving Peace Amid Spiritual Weakness. 



EIGHTH POINT. 1 

How greatly Diffidence and Mistrust Offend the Lord and 
Injure the Soul. 

We cannot too often impress upon pious souls the im- 
portance of guarding against discouragement, distrust, and 
sadness, as well as the necessity of preserving at all times 
and upon all occasions holy peace and joy. In a thousand 
places of the Sacred Scriptures the Holy Spirit repeats this 
admonition to us, as if very specially to direct our attention 
to it. By disquietude, fear, and dejection we in no way 
honor God. Such dispositions offend Him. They express 
doubt of His goodness, remove us from Him, and deprive 
us of His assistance. Our vain apprehensions may lead to 
God^s really permitting the evil we dreaded to come upon us. 
Confidence in Him produces effects precisely opposite. 

Peter walked with feet secure upon the stormy billows, 
so long as he remembered the goodness and omnipotence of 
Him whom he was going to meet. But he began to sink 
as soon as, terrified by the roaring of the storm, he trembled 
and wavered in confidence: ^* thou of little faith! why 
didst thou doubt ?^^ ^ ^' Woe to them that are faint-hearted, 
who believe not God: and therefore they shall not be pro- 
tected by Him.^^^ Our first duty is, therefore, to banish 
faint-heartedness, which deprives us of the divine protec- 
tion, and is in consequence the cause of so many faults 
and sufferings. On the contrary, we must strengthen our- 
selves more and more in hope, the source of all good, of 
peace and joy: ^^Ye that fear the Lord, hope in Him: 
and mercy shall come to you for your delight. ^^^ "^"^He 
that adoreth God with joy shall be accepted, and his prayer 
shall approach even to the clouds.''' ^"^ Delight in the 
Lord, and He will give thee the requests of thy heart. ^^^ 

J This point is taken from the "Treatise on Christian Hope,"' by Father 
Gaud, S. J. 
2 Matt. xiv. 31. ^ Ecclus. li. 15. ^ EccIus. ii. 9. 

5 EcOlus. XXXV. 20. ^ Ps. xxxvi. 4. 



Varioits Instrttdions on Preserving Peace, 175 

^^Tlie joyf Illness of the heart is the life of a man^ and a 
never-failing treasure of holiness/^ ^ ^^The sadness of the 
heart is every plague/^ "^ Sadness infuses grief and bitter- 
ness into every act^ by filling the mind with dark pictures 
and gloomy thoughts; weakening confidence in God, 
diminishing love for Him; destroying benevolence, com- 
passion, and patience toward the neighbor; creating anger, 
impatience, hatred, and jealousy: and it goes so far as even 
to undermine the health of the body. In a word, it inflicts 
deadly wounds. Ah, then, suffer not thy soul to be sad, 
and put away gloomy thoughts! ^^Have pity on thy own 
soul, pleasing God: gather up thy heart in His holiness, and 
drive away sadness far from thee; for sadness hath killed 
many, and there is no profit in it." ^ 

Attend to the fact that the last care of Jesus Christ was 
to impress His disciples with this consoling truth. In their 
person He exhorts all believers to take it to heart. In His 
most admirable discourse after the Last Supper, He left us 
His peace and His joy as an heirloom. He explicitly com- 
manded His disciples to banish every fear and disquiet from 
their heart, repeating to them: ^^ Let not your heart be 
troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me."* In 
him who does believe every apprehension should cease. 
God is our Father, and His only-begotten Son our Media- 
tor! ^' Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you: 
not as the world giveth, do I give unto you. Let not your 
heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid." ^ " These things I 
have spoken to you that My joy may be in you, and your 
joy may be filled."^ "'^Ask and you shall receive, that 
your joy may be full." "^ ^^ These things I have spoken to 
you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you 
shall have distress: but have confidence, I have overcome 
the world," ® for Myself and for you. And when the Lord 
gave Himself to prayer for Himself and for those whom 

I Ecclus. XXX. 23. 2 Ecclus. xxv. 17. ^ Ecclus. xxx. 24-25. 

* John xiv. 1. 5 John xiv. 27. « John xv. 11. 

■'' John xvi. 24. ^ John xvi. 33. 



1 76 Preserving Peace Amid Spiritual Weakness. 

the Father has given Him^ turning to His own heavenly 
Father^ He said: ^'^ And now I come to Thee: and these 
things I speak in the Avorld^ that they may have My joy 
filled in themselves/^ ^ The Apostles^ impressed by these 
teachings of their Lord, never wearied repeating them to 
the faithful both in their words and in their epistles. 

1 John xvii. 13. 




CHAPTER IL 
Of Faults Springing from Weakness. 

FIRST POINT. 1 

One should without Disquiet or without Mistrust Return to 
God when he has Fallen into Venial Sin. 

ilHEN the fiend cannot induce a soul to become care- 
less in the commission of venial sin^ when he sees 
that she hates and despises it^ he tries to mingle 
a purely natural sorrow, a purely human sadness^ in her 
contrition^ by which he harms her almost as much as if he 
had succeeded in his first design. True sorrow^ such as 
the Holy Ghost imparts to the soul^ is rich in consolation; 
for it holds in itself the hope of pardon^ and gives us even 
new strength to labor more assiduously at rooting out our 
faults. Purely natural pain^ merely human sorrow which 
the devil stirs up, fills the soul, on the contrary, with per- 
plexity and anguish, robs her of the hope of improving or 
beginning anew, and often exposes her to still greater faults. 
There are many Christians who lead an otherwise pious, 
upright life, but who do not wish to understand this truth. 
Seeing themselves constantly subject to venial sin, they 
grow discouraged and vexed with self. Sometimes they 
complain of their evil nature; sometimes of the fickleness 
of their good resolutions; again of the defects or utter 
uselessness of their confessions, prayers, and Communions. 
They fill their mind with the thought that they will never 
be better; they sadden their heart with these and similar 

1 This and the two following points are from " Treatise on Christian Hope," 
by Father Gaud, S.J. 

177 



1 78 Preserving Peace Amid Spirihtal Weakness. 

conceits^ till works of piety and spiritual exercises become 
painful^ — nay, even loathsome to tliem. They lose their 
time in trifling and anxious speculations upon what took 
place in their soul during the temptation; they put to 
themselves a score of questions as to how many minutes 
they resisted, whether their consent was immediate, whether 
with full knowledge, etc. They recommence this examina- 
tion of conscience over and over again, becoming less satis- 
fied with themselves the longer they proceed, and thereby 
increasing their interior disquiet. 

Such persons, notwithstanding, go frequently to confes- 
sion; but their heart is so full of doubt, anxiety, and sad- 
ness, that they are after it as much disturbed as before. 
They are in constant dread of not having rightly and 
minutely accused themselves, or of not being understood. 
Their whole life becomes an unbroken chain of suffering, 
disquiet, and apprehension, from which they derive neither 
profit nor advantage. They are, on the contrary, disheart- 
ened by these trials, which hinder their progress in Chris- 
tian perfection, the essence of which consists in the love of 
God and confidence in His goodness. 

True sorrow infused by the Holy Ghost into the soul 
generates no evil consequences. Such sorrow is a great 
grace from God. It is impossible for it to create discour- 
agement in the soul, or hold her back from recurring with 
entire confidence to the Divine Goodness. It is impossible 
that it should infuse into her nothing but anxiety, distress, 
and impatience. True repentant sorrow casts the soul into 
the arms of God, where she finds strength and comfort. 
If for a moment perplexed, yet her embarrassment soon 
changes to confidence, which in turn attracts the divine 
mercy. The evil effects of the sorrow of which we have 
just spoken must not be ascribed to the Holy Ghost. 
They spring, undoubtedly, from the enemy of souls, and 
are strengthened by pride and self-love. We must heartily 
detest our sins, since they are opposed to the justice and 
holiness of God, to which they offer infinite injury; but we 



Faults springing from Weakness. 179 

must consider, also, what thanks we owe the Divine Good- 
ness, whose clemency has guarded us from greater falls, 
from eternal woe. After every misstep we must resolve 
anew to wage war against our evil inclinations, and, w^ith 
ever-increasing courage, pursue them to death. Finally, 
we must with unshaken confidence seek refuge in God, 
and never abandon the hope that He will grant us the vic- 
tory when His greater glory and our salvation call for it. 
He will either free us from our faults or by means of them 
render us humble. Let us confide in Him, and He will 
grant us the grace to live and die in His love, and in hatred 
of sin. ^^ Fight like a true warrior; and if sometimes 
through human frailty you are defeated, renew your cour- 
age, and hope for greater graces from Me!^^ ^ 

God commands us to hate our evil inclinations, and the 
multiplied sins springing from them; but He desires us to 
do so through love of Him, and not from pride. He wills 
that we repent of them, but only in such a way as will lead 
to our improvement and sincere return to Himself. He 
forbids us to yield to the sorrow that makes us sink only the 
deeper. An upright, humble soul hates her sins, because 
they are contrary to the justice and holiness of God; but 
she loves the humiliations that come to her from them, for 
justice requires that she should make use of this deserved 
humiliation, bear it patiently, and profit by her own shame 
to repair her fault. But a proud soul thinks little of all 
this. That her sin opposes the Divine Justice, matters not 
to her. She sees only the shame and abjection that her 
faults bring upon her; hence her impatience, her grief, 
her anxiety, her discouragement. But this is not that true 
hatred for sin which God demands. Instead of atoning for 
the fault, it increases it. Let us not be astonished, let us 
not be dejected, if we also, after long years in God^s service, 
perceive in ourselves so much slothfulness, misery, and 
weakness. Astonishment or discouragement would evince 
our little progress in self-knowledge and self-hatred. It 

1 Following of Christ, Ck. III. c. 6. _ 



i8o Preservmg Peace Amid Spiritual Weakness, 

would prove that we do not yet know how to rise after a 
fault, and that we are far from giving due honor to the 
goodness of God and the grace of Jesus Christ, as we are in 
duty bound. 

After having committed a fault, think of God and not of 
yourself. Honor the Divine Truth and Justice. Eemain 
humbly before God, acknowledging that He has nothing to 
expect from your perversity. Thank Him that you have 
not sunk still deeper. Be cautious in guarding yourself 
from the snares of your cunning enemy, who, making use of 
your chagrin and false shame, would drag you still deeper 
into hell. Rise quietly from your fall, and be assured that, 
by giving vent to anger against yourself, you commit a 
greater fault than that which you bewail. A child that has 
ofEended his mother by word or deed would outrage her 
maternal heart if he despaired of pardon or feared that she 
would disinherit him. Such a suspicion would certainly 
cause the mother more suffering than the fault itself. Be 
persuaded, then, that discouragement, lack of confidence, 
and mistrust of God's goodness and help injure and dis- 
honor Him more than the sins which arouse such senti- 
ments. 

Do you feel restless, ashamed, and discouraged after a 
fault? Then let your first care be to regain peace and 
tranquillity of heart. Turn your thoughts from what has 
happened, and consider the infinite mercy of God, as well 
as the proofs which He has ever given you of it in prefer- 
ence to so many others. Having by such consoling con- 
siderations restored the peace of your soul, think seriously 
upon your offence, in order to repair it in the manner sug- 
gested above. So long as disquiet lasts, you are not in a 
condition to reason upon your fault, as is useful and salu- 
tary for you to do; and instead of repairing it, you would 
commit some new and perhaps more grievous one. 

As soon as you feel disturbed, recall the fact that it is 
God^s will that you resist such emotions as you would any 
other temptation. Such disturbance would hinder your 



Faults springing from Weakness, i8i 

clearly understanding tlie truth and acting with the Spirit 
of the Lord, whilst at the same time you open the door to 
the suggestions of the Evil One. The devil knows this; 
therefore he is always on the alert to cast you into disquiet 
and keep you there. Be not deceived by him, nor yet by 
the appearance of false liumility, or the fear of God. Dis- 
quiet is always dangerous, and it is our first and most im- 
portant duty to avoid it. Yes, even when imposing a 
heavy penance upon ourselves in expiation of a serious 
transgression, it must be with that interior peace which 
alone can enable us to see what is truly good for us. 

^^ We preach to worldlings the fear of the Lord,'' says 
Father Huby, a very skilful guide of souls, ^^but I preach 
to religious and to pious souls confidence in God. I exhort 
them to take refuge in the Lord, particularly if they have 
fallen into some fault. I would that their confidence were 
as great at such moments as it is after Holy Communion. 
After the commission of sin courage is even more necessary 
to us than before; for then, being weaker, we need more 
grace and strength. Confidence in God gives both. 

^^ We could not vex the Evil One more than by clothing 
ourselves with confidence after a fall. His aim is to hold 
us captive in constraint of mind which amounts almost to 
despair. This is not one fault only, but a whole series of 
faults. To frustrate this design of the devil, we must 
arouse as strong confidence in our heart as possible. 

" Why should one be discou-raged if sometimes overcome ? 
Our adversary the devil never ceases his attacks, although 
a thousand times repulsed in the same temptations. As 
far as his own state is concerned, he is sunk in despair; but 
he never loses hope of casting us into perdition. He ex- 
pects to conquer by his own malice and our weakness. 
Why, then, should we not hope all from the goodness of 
God, from the assistance of His grace, which is infinitely 
more powerful than the snares of the evil spirit ? 

^'We practise confidence in God more perfectly Avhen 



1 82 Preservmg Peace Amid spiritual Weakness. 

tlie dangers and sufferings to wliicli we are exposed are 
greatest. 

" The more fully a soul gives herself up to the Lordj, the 
better will she be guarded by Him!^^ 

SECOND POINT. 

Frequent Relapses into Venial Sins are not always a Sign 
of Insufficient Sorrow for them. 

AVe now come to a point which is usually a source of 
disquiet^ distrusts, and discouragement to anxious souls. 
What follows applies only to those who sincerely love God, 
and honestly aim at avoiding venial sin. These^ in spite 
of their relapses^ should not imagine that their sorrow for 
sin and their good resolutions against it were only specious 
and unmeaning protestations. There is a great difference 
between contrition for mortal sin and that excited by venial 
sin; between hatred of the first and horror for the second; 
between the determination to avoid the one and the resolu- 
tion not to commit the other. 

We cannot truly atone for one of our mortal sins without 
doing penance for them all. One cannot be sincerely con- 
verted to God if he hates only some of his mortal sins, and 
does not detest them all. One cannot worthily confess if 
he resolves to refrain only from some mortal sins, and does 
not extend this resolution to all. In the same way, one 
mortal sin cannot be remitted without all being pardoned. 
jMortal sin is incompatible with a life of grace, a child of 
God, and an heir of heaven. Every mortal sin separates 
the soul from God, kills her, makes her deserving of con- 
demnation to hell. He that would be converted to God, let 
him do penance, and redeem his soul from death and hell. 
He must necessarily hate and detest sin; he must be firmly 
resolved to avoid all sins without exception. The determi- 
nation not to commit mortal sin, can and should be carried 
into effect, since every Christian can and should keep him- 
self free from it. ^'Therefore,'' says St. Augustine, ^^a 



Faults Spi'inging from Weakness. 183 

Christian who is pure in faith and firm in hope commits 
no such sins/^^ In the same sense is to be understood 
what St. John says: " Every one that abideth in Christ sins 
not/^ ^ and " Whosoever is born of Christ sins not/^ ^ 

It is quite different with the state of true servants of 
God who commit venial sin only. The resolution to avoid 
such sins cannot be kept perfectly; for it is of faith that 
the just with the help of ordinary grace are not in a con- 
dition always to avoid venial sin. The ever Blessed Yirgia 
alone enjoyed this privilege. In regard to venial sins^ our 
resolution to strive to avoid them consists more in an up- 
right will and hearty desire to commit them no more, than 
in the hope of never falling into any; for we must believe 
that, in spite of all our watchfulness, devotion, and efforts 
we cannot preserve ourselves entirely from them. Pious 
souls, therefore, should neither be discouraged nor waver 
in confidence, although constantly falling into those venial 
sins of which they have so often accused themselves. 
^^The just man,^^ says the Holy Scripture, ^^ falls seven 
times, and rises again. ^^^ 

It is enough if we hate sin and bewail it, if we humble 
ourselves for it, and always endeavor to avoid it as much as 
possible. We may experience the heartiest, the most sin- 
cere sorrow, and yet relapse often enough; for whilst hating 
the weakness, one may at* the same time remain weak. 
Even those that are so weak as to retain a deliberate attach- 
ment to some venial sin should not lose courage. Without 
much time and labor one will not succeed in overcoming 
every attachment to evil. 

They that live in the greatest retirement from creatures 
and worldly affairs are even by this more exposed to relapse 
into the same sins. Since their exercises and occupations 
are always the same, their faults likewise are always the 
same. In general, our sins change their nature with the 
change of occasion. Similar occasions give rise to the 

1 Aiio^ust. de verbis Apost. serm. 181, n. 8. 2 \ John iii. 6. 

3 Cone. Trid. sess. 6, can. 23. ^ Prov. xxiv. 16. 



184 Preserving Peace Amid spiritual Weakness. 

same temptations and the same sins. This usually hap- 
pens to souls that most sincerely detest venial sin^ and are 
most earnestly striving after perfection. 

But on this account we dare not believe that all our good 
purposes in regard to venial sins^ all our watchfulness^, 
labor^ and prayer by which we implore to be freed from 
them, are lost and useless. To harbor such a thought 
would be to yield to one of the most dangerous insinua- 
tions of the Evil One. Our exertions all tend to procure 
for us the greatest blessings. God preserves us by them 
not only from many venial sins, but perhaps even from 
grievous ones. In consideration of our prayers and efforts 
to be free from daily faults, God will at the hour of our 
death really free us from them; and, in reward for our 
hunger and thirst after justice during this life, He will fill 
us with goodthings in the next. 



THIRD POINT. 

How God permits the Venial Sins of the Just and all their 
other Imperfections to Redound to their Greatest Good. 

'' The spirit of those that fear God is sought after, and 
by His regard shall be blessed. . . . For their hope is on 
Him that saveth them, and th^ eyes of God are upon them 
that love Him. ... A preservation from stumbling, and a 
help from falling, He raiseth up the soul and enlighteneth 
the eyes, and giveth health and life and blessing, ^^ ^ even 
making use of their weakness in daily faults to increase 
their strength. Thus He fulfils the words of the prophet: 
*^^ When the righteous fall, he shall not be bruised: for the 
Lord putteth His hand under him.^^ The Lord holds 
His hand under him that his fall may be less dangerous, 
and that he may rise more vigorous than before. 

Deep and firmly rooted humility is the first and principal 
advantage to be derived from our faults. The gravest and 

1 Ecclus. xxxiv. 14, 15, 20. 



Faults Springing from Weakness. 185 

most dangerous of all evils is pride^ and the vain compla- 
cency we secretly take in our virtues. To protect us from 
this deadly malady of the soul^ God permits in us so many 
faults and imperfections. They serve to keep down the 
temptation to esteem ourselves above others. If^ in spite 
of our great misery and many sins^, it still costs us unspeak- 
able efforts to humble ourselves, what a snare would not a 
superfluity of spiritual gifts be to us ? God dispenses to 
His servants His graces with weight and measure. He in- 
stils into them through the Holy Spirit a great longing for 
perfection, whilst permitting them to be tempted, to ex- 
perience in themselves naught but obstacles to the fulfil- 
ment of their pious design, and to fall short in the rapid 
progress they desire to make. By this means they are, 
however, preserved from pride and vain self-complacency. 

But how is this ardent longing after perfection which 
God Himself instils into His servants, those sighs and in- 
cessant prayers by which the Holy Spirit in them pleads 
for exemption from their sins and imperfections, compatible 
with, the promise contained in these words of Our Lord: 
^^ Ask, and you shall receive ?^' ^ Is it not written: " The 
Lor4 hath heard the desire of the poor: Thy ear hath 
heard the preparation of their heart. '^"^ Isjit not also 
written, says St. Augustine: " Before they call I will hear: 
as they are yet speaking, I will hear.-'^ ^ " It is true,^^ answers 
this holy Father of the Church; ^^but by deferring assist- 
ance God really helps, and precisely by means of this delay. 
He fears that He may not grant perfect health by a too ready 
compliance with our petitions.^^ If He gave us at once all 
that we desire and long for, we should experience neither 
struggle nor opposition to good, we should ascribe the 
facility with which we receive God^s gifts to our own 
strength or power. Such pride would be an obstacle to 
perfect victory. God the Master acts like a skilful physi- 
cian . The latter, though forbidding his convalescing patient 
certain food, though refusing his petition for it, is really 

!■ John xvi. 24. 2 pg Heb. x. 17. » is. ixv. 24. 



1 86 Preserving Peace Amid Spiritual Weakness. 

granting it; not indeed according to his patient^s desire, 
but agreeably to reason and the true interest of the sick 
man. One may even say that he grants the inyalid^s dear- 
est wish, since a reasonable patient desires above all else 
his restoration to health. A skilful surgeon will sometimes 
keep a wound open in order to draw off poisonous humors 
and secure the recovery of the sufferer. In like manner 
God deals with His servants. He permits them to retain 
certain weaknesses and infirmities. He does not heal their 
wounds at once, because He knows well that a sudden res- 
toration to perfect health would rouse in them a tempta- 
tion to pride, and vain self-complacency would endanger 
the loss of merit previously acquired. Hence He allows 
them to advance in perfection only by degrees in order 
thereby to ground them in humility. He gives them His 
grace sparingly to secure to them the possession of the 
more essential virtues. 

God permits the light of His countenance to shine upon 
us; and we are enlightened, we are filled with consolation 
and joy. He hides Himself; and dryness, hunger, and 
loathing are our portion. He turns to us again, and with 
Him return peace and enjoyment. " Thou visitest him 
early in the morning, and Thou provest him suddenly/^ * 
He leaves us impetuosity of passion, inconstancy of humor, 
mutability of desires, thoughts, and sentiments; and by all 
these variable emotions He leads us to unalterable calm 
and equanimity of soul, and that to such a degree that 
nothing can any longer take us by surprise, nothing can 
henceforth move us. We judge of all things equally, we 
despise and humble ourselves in everything; we depend no 
longer upon ourselves, nor upon our own disposition of 
soul; and at all times and under all circumstances we cling 
unalterably to God as to our only support. 

W^hoever is rightly penetrated with these sentiments is 
not hurt by falls. His faults render him humble and 
grateful ; consequently, purer and more just. There are 

1 Job vii. 18. 



Faults Springing from Weakness. 187 

certain lotions which are apparently calculated only to soil 
whatever they touchy and yet they really cleanse from 
stains. Precisely thus do pious souls make use of the 
faults and sins that so often creep into their best actions. 
They purify their souls with them from pride, their great- 
est fault. It is ordained that during this life the sight of 
our virtues should soil us, and that of our sins purify. 
^'Not unfrequently is it the case/' says St. Gregory, ''that 
they who see themselves before God stained Avith many 
sins, are richly adorned with the costly garment of deep 
humility. '^ And St. Bernard says: ''Thus falleth the 
just on the hand of the Lord, and thus is seen the aston- 
ishing wonder, that even his sin contributes to make him 
more jusf "For we know,'' writes St. Paul, "that to 
those who love God all works together unto good." Do not 
our own faults tend to our greatest advantage when they 
make us more humble and watchful? And if humility 
sustain him who falls, is he not upheld by God's own 
hand? "I was moved and dejected," says the prophet, 
"and already I fell ; but he tliat cast me down has gained 
nothing, for the Lord upheld me." ^ Who would not here 
admire the goodness of God, who, so to say, at His own 
cost, that is, by the offences which we offer Him, heals us 
and leads us onward ? 

Humility is the most excellent advantage that we can 
derive from our venial sins. But it is not the only one ; 
for God knows how, in consideration of our w^eakness, to 
impart to us several others. By our frequent failings He 
awakens, maintains, and increases in us the spirit of prayer. 
In this land of probation prayer should be our only consola- 
tion, our greatest happiness ; yet, alas, of what coldness 
and negligence are we not guilty during this holy exercise ! 
For this reason God makes use of our sins and temptations 
to preserve us from tepidity. When the sense of our 
miseries casts us down, then do we cry to God with all the 
power of our soul. As soon as suffering and danger cease 

1 Bern, in Ps. xc. 



J 88 Preserving Peace Amid Spirihtal Weakness. 

to oppress iis^ we likewise cease to pray with fervor. Either 
our misery must continue^ or new afflictions mnst come 
upon us, to force us^ as it were, to take refuge in God, to 
flee to Him for help. God desires that constant intercourse 
should be maintained between His goodness and our weak- 
ness. Hence in this life He does not endue our souls 
with perfect strength : He dispenses His graces to us but by 
degrees. 

The fervor of penance shone with special brilliancy in 
the saints directly after the persecutions of the early Chris- 
tians. The happiness of sacrificing self to the Lord by 
martyrdom, of washing away sin in their own blood, was 
denied to Christians after that date ; wherefore they sought 
to indemnify themselves by another kind of martyrdom, 
which, if it did not approach the first in barbarity, far out- 
stripped it in duration. They offered themselves, by a long 
life of austerity and expiation, as holocausts to the Lord. 
But Avhat induced them to wage so cruel a war against 
themselves, and thus become their own persecutors ? Noth- 
ing else than the venial sins which they discovered in their 
lives. They bewailed their least faults as others regret not 
even the greatest transgressions. Zeal for God's glory and 
justice consumed them, armed them against self, and led 
them gladly to devote themselves to a slow death, an unin- 
terrupted martyrdom. Had they been free from sin, had 
they remarked no failings in their life, no stains upon 
their soul, the Church would have lacked her fervent peni- 
tents, and heaven their gleaming crowns. When a sinner 
grieves over his offences and atones for them all heaven re- 
joices with great joy, and by his penitential fervor he 
merits a place in the kingdom of God. ^MVhat joy,"' says 
St. Gregory, " shall there not be above over a just man who 
so honestly bewails his least sins and so severely atones for 
them ! To what glory does he not merit to be raised V^ 
This is certainly not one of the least advantages which God 
permits to spring from the venial sins of the righteous. 
But there are several others yet to be enumerated. 



Faults Springing from Weakness. 189 

Among all the Divine Commandments not one weighs 
more heavily upon our nature than that which directs us 
to love our enemies, to forgive unreservedly those who have 
offended or injured us in any way. Kow, God, Avho Him- 
self has mercy upon our weakness, makes use of our venial 
sins to render the fulfilment of this commandment sweet 
and easy. For who would not joyfully pardon his neighbor 
every contradiction and mortification when he thinks that 
by this means he himself will be absolved by God from 
the penalty due his own sins ? What one man has to pardon 
another is well-nigh nothing ; but the debt man owes to his 
Creator is infinite. Is it not, therefore, to be one's own 
enemy to refuse so advantageous an exchange ? Let us not 
neglect to purchase the infinite mercy of God by our sweet 
and gentle mercy toward our brethren. 

We are constrained to bear patiently all our own defects 
and sins, the inconstancy of our mind, the revolts of our 
passions, the changeableness of our humors, our constant 
interior rebellion. Should not this sad necessity make us 
indulgent toward the weaknesses of others ? Should we not 
bear in others what we must endure in ourselves? You 
command yourself something, and you will not obey ; you 
so often impose silence upon your thoughts, desires, and 
passions, and yet they resist you, so that ^^you do not that 
which you would. ^^^ How unjust, therefore, to think it 
strange that others should oppose 3^our wishes ! The Al- 
mighty, the Creator, suffers a creature to oppose His will 
and transgress His Commandments; and you, poor wretched 
worm, will you not endure that another worm like yourself 
should oppose you and resist your will? 

We have now pointed out the chief advantages that the 
just may draw from their faults and venial sins. All these 
benefits are not the consequences of sin itself, but the effects 
of the infinite mercy of God and the grace of Jesus Christ, 
who in His goodness knows how to turn evil itself to our 
sanctification. Manure is nothing but foulness and cor- 

1 Galatians v. 17. 



I go Preserving Peace Amid Spiritual Weakness. 

ruption^ as St. Bernard very aptly remarks. And yet it 
enables tlie farmer and gardener to produce most beautiful 
flowers and the richest harvests of fruits. Even so does 
God make use of the sins and imperfections of His elect to 
bring forth the rarest and richest fruits of virtue in their 
souls. It will be given them to share in these graces if they 
hate their sins^ humble them^selves for them^ take pains to 
uproot them^ meanwhile losing neither courage nor confi- 
dence in God^s goodness and Christ's grace. In this pre- 
cisely, and in nothing else, according to St. Augustine, 
does the perfection of the just consist during this life. 
This holy Father of the Church has, in one of his works, 
shown that perfection is not reached by aiming at a fault- 
less righteousness altogether unattainable in this life; but 
rather in the constant remission of venial sins, and in the 
care to make use of them for advancement in virtue. All 
that has been said in this chapter will lead to the under- 
standing of what is found in the writings of various teach- 
ers of the interior life ; namely, that he who commits the 
fewest venial sins is not the most perfect. It may very 
easily happen that some one, owing to more frequent occa- 
sions, to his ardent temperament, his employment, or sur- 
roundings, may commit trivial faults more frequently than 
others ; and yet, before God, be purer and more perfect than 
they that commit fewer faults. The most perfect souls are 
they who acknowledge and lament their faults most sin- 
cerely ; who seriously endeavor to cut off their source, 
which are pride and self-love ; and who make use of their 
sins to advance in humility and gratitude to the All-merci- 
f ul God. 



Faults Springing from Weakness. 191 

FOURTH POIISrT.i 
Of Bearing with Self and our Daily Faults and Weaknesses. 

It may easily be seen that there are many faults that are 
in various degrees deliberate, although not committed with 
the express design of offending God. 

A friend will often upbraid another with a fault not in- 
tentionally committed to injure, although, perhaps, it may 
have been calculated to harm. In like manner God is dis- 
pleased with faults against Himself. They are, in fact, 
deliberate; for although reflection is wanting, the will is 
active. It is in opposition to a certain interior light that 
should suffice to make us avoid the fault. 

Such faults pious souls often commit. Deliberate venial 
sins, however, are rare when the soul has once given herself 
truly to God. 

In proportion as the clear light of grace increases in us, 
our slightest transgressions appear to us gi'aver; just as ob- 
jects are dimly seen at night, but gradually become distinct 
as the sun rises above the horizon. Be convinced, then, 
that by the increase of interior light the imperfections you 
now observe in yourself will appear much greater and more 
malicious. You will also discover a thousand others in 
your heart that you would not otherwise have known. 
Yes, you will there fin d the very weaknesses that are most 
calculated to rob you of confidence in your own strength. 
But these painful experiences should not discourage. They 
should serve merely to divest of self-confidence. Nothing 
proves the true progress of a soul more than the power to 
bear the sight of her misery without disquiet or discourage- 
ment. 

This is an important rule: Never commit a fault of 
which yor. are aware beforehand; and courageously bear 
the penalty of humiliation, as soon as you perceive that 
you have been so unfaithful. 

1 This point is from Fenelon. 



192 Preserving Peace Amid Spirihtal Weakness. 

If you see a fault before committing it^ beware of resist- 
ing the Spirit of God. He warns you interiorly, and 
opposition would stifle His call of grace. Faults of inad- 
yertence and weakness are nothing in comparison wdth 
those that arise from disregarding the voice of the Holy 
Spirit, who makes Himself heard in the secret depths of 
the heart. 

But the faults of which you become conscious after com- 
mission will never be repaired by disquiet and vexation. 
On the contrary, such vexation is the clamoring of pride 
over what has confused you. After such faults, simply 
and quietly humble yourself. I say quietly, for to accept 
humiliation unwillingly and ungraciously is not to humble 
one^s self. Disapprove and bewail your faults imposing 
some penance suited to the state of your soul, and do not 
seek consolation in vain excuses and palliations. Look at 
yourself before God in all your misery, without bitterness 
and without discouragement. Taste and enjoy in peace 
your own abjection. Thus will you draw from the serpent 
the remedy for its poison. Confusion borne patiently after 
little faults is to the soul a preservative from mortal sin. 
He who struggles against humiliations shows that the vir- 
tue of humility is wanting. 

Do you wish to know whether your former confessions 
were good ? Then, do not ask yourself whether you have 
forgotten any faults in them, but whether you have sin- 
cerely accused yourself of all that j'Ou knew. Light was not 
given you then as now; therefore you could not know all 
your evil inclinations. The more pure light streams into 
your soul, the more convinced you become that your de- 
pravity is greater than you believed. Be not astonished 
nor discouraged. It is not that you are worse now than 
formerly: on the contrary, you are advancing, for to your 
consolation be it said, we become aware of our evils only 
when they begin to heal. So long as your wound is not 
doing so, you do not feel its grievousness. AVhilst you float 
with the stream, you do not notice the movement of the 



Faults Springing from Weakness. 193 

water. It is only when you begin to go against the current 
thai you experience the force of the waves. 



FIFTH POINT. 

The Faults of our Neighbor should Disturb our Peace as Little 
as the Imperfections Found in every Human Virtue. 

He has not yet sufficiently fathomed his o^vn misery, and 
that of mankind in general, who is scandalized at the weak- 
ness and corruption of his fellow-men. Expect nothing 
good of them; then the evil in them will not surprise you. 
Do not indulge the delusion that humanity is of much ac- 
count; but be persuaded that it is nothing, and less than 
nothing. Why wonder that a bad tree bears bad fruit? 
Eather wonder much more that Jesus Christ, upon whom 
as wild shoots we are engrafted, should permit us to bring 
forth, instead of our own bitter fruits, the sweet fruits of 
virtue. 

Be not deceived! Every human virtue is tainted with 
self-esteem and self-confidence; but notwithstanding it still 
remains virtue. When you see in the same person little 
faults mingled with high and interior devotion, do not 
think his piety is not genuine, do not mistrust the senti- 
ments or undertakings of such a person. Your own piety 
remains, indeed, both good and praiseworthy, in spite of 
the commingling with it of much self-love and impetuosity. 
And if that person of whom we speak were to express his 
sentiments to you regarding his- faults, you would see that 
they spring much more from bad direction than from evil 
intention. 

Zeal against the faults of others is in itself a great fault. 
To despise another on account of his weaknesses evinces a 
weakness that does not sufficiently know itself — a species of 
pride which soars aloft in order to observe human misery; 
whereas to measure it correctly it should be viewed from a 
level stand-point. 



194 P'l^cserving Peace Amid Spiritual Weakness. 

You fear that the knowledge and experience of human 
frailty might lead to contempt for the whole human race. 
This^ in a certain sense^ is much to be desired; but you 
must also acknowledge the good that God mixes with it. 
Alas I there are but few who without prejudice can view 
this combination of good and evil. Be convinced of this 
truths that it was the enemy who sowed the bad seed among 
the good. The servant wanted to go and gather it up, but 
the good man of the house said: ^^No^ suffer both to grow 
until the harvest. ^^ ^ 

The important point is not to let such an aspect discour- 
age and render us too distrustful. Many by nature open 
and confiding, become more close and distrustful than any 
others after the frequent and bitter experience of having 
their candor and openness betrayed. But that is going too 
far. God has always some true and upright servants. If 
these do not do all they should, compared with others they 
still do much, according to their strength and ability. 
They discern their imperfections, humble themselves for 
them, and struggle against them; and tliough sloAvly, they 
amend them. They give God the glory of what they do, 
and they call themselves to severe account for what they 
leave undone. God is satisfied Avith this, and you ought to 
be so too. 

When you perceive in any quarter that God should be 
more perfectly served, then, without rule or measure, do 
you strive perfectly to honor Him in spirit and in truth. 
Such honor leaves to the creature nothing for self, and con- 
demns as an infidelity every return upon self. if once 
you found yourself in this holy, blessed state, you would 
be a stranger to every feeling of impatience at the faults of 
others I Your heart would be so enlarged that it would 
feel nauglit but indulgence and compassion for the narrow- 
mindedness of the selfish. Indeed, the more perfect one is 
himself, the milder he is toward his less perfect neighbor. 
It is only the imperfect who are impatient with the imper- 

» Matt. xiii. 30. 



Faiclts Springmg from Weahiess. 195 

feet. The Pharisee could not endure Mary Magdalen and 
the publican — those sinners whom Jesus Christ treated with 
divine gentleness and goodness. He who entirely renounces 
self, enters into the infinity of God, which is never wearied, 
never overcome. AVhen will you acquire this freedom of 
the children of God, this broad, great-heartedness ? Sensi- 
bility, or that tenderness of feeling which is so quickly 
wounded, and which is often falsely ascribed to a refined 
sentiment of virtue, originates in narrow-mindedness and 
love of self. He who no longer lives for self, lives wholly 
for his neighbor and for God. He, on the contrary, who 
lives for self gives himself to God and to his neighbor only 
in small and limited measure. The more he clings to self, 
ihe less he has to give to God. may peace, truth, sim- 
plicity, freedom, pure faith, and unselfish love soon make 
of you a holocaust to the Lord! 

A few of Fenelon^s thoughts upon intercourse with the 
neighbor will aptly close this chapter: " You must despise 
the world,^^ says he, ^^'and still know how to hold necessary 
intercourse with it. You may renounce it from piety, but 
you must not withdraw from it through caprice or matter 
of convenience. Maintain, in conformity with duty, a 
reasonable intercourse with it. Xegiect it not through 
sloth, but do not serve it through vanity. Preserve con- 
verse with men agreeably to the dispensations of Provi- 
dence; but never build upon them, however good they may 
be. N^ever forget that God alone is the true friend of the 
heart. He alone is able to console. . He alone understands 
all. The first low tone of your hearths cry to Him, He 
hears. None other than He can enter so fully into your 
needs and sufferings, and you are never burdensome to 
Him; therefore, choose Him for your friend, make Him 
your second self.^ But as concerns your intercourse with 
men, be not too nice in your choice. If you find people 
peaceable and a little reasonable, be satisfied. Forget not, 
however, that we must be content with little and endure 

1 Following of Christ, Bk. I. c. 16. _ _ 



196 Preserving Peace Amid Spiritual Weakness. 

mucL^ if we would get along well with even the best people. 
Only under these conditions is harmony possible. 

*^^In disagreements between you and your neighbor^ you 
must always remember that to be in the right is the con- 
sideration that influences a Christian the least. The phi- 
losopher may indulge such a satisfaction. But to be in the 
right and to act as if one were not^ to allow oner's opponent 
to triumph on the side of injustice, — this means to over- 
come evil by good, and to secure peace for one^s soul. No 
more convincing argument for your own vindication is re- 
quired than the silent exterior acknowledgment that you 
are in the wrong. He who edifies does more for the truth 
than he who is zealous for the combat. Instead of trying 
to refute those that are in the wrong, it is better to pray 
for them. A stream flows much more rapidly when noth- 
ing is done to hold it back. Pray for those who are preju- 
diced against you, never become embittered against them^ 
pity them, await their return to better feelings, and help 
to free them from their prejudices. One would not be 
human if he does not feel how easy it is to stray, and how 
much it costs to acknowledge this. The spirit of meek- 
ness, of indulgence, of patience and humility in examining 
the behavior of others toward us, secures us that peace of 
mind which is not compatible with the jealous, suspicious 
sensibilities of self-love/^ 




CHAPTER III. 
Of Discouragement. 

FIRST POINT. 

Evil Consequences of Discouragement.^ 

JIISCOUKAGEMENT is the most dangerous temp- 
tation of the devil. By other weapons he attacks 
only a single virtue^ and shows himself without 
disguise; but here^ whilst concealing himself^ he shatters 
all the virtues to their very foundation. In other tempta- 
tions one can easily discover his snares. In religion^ often 
even in reason or in a Christian education^ principles upon 
which to condemn the evil may be found. A glance at the 
sin that cannot be palliated; conscience raising its voice 
aloud; the spirit of religion awakened with increased 
strength — all these may serve to parry the insidious attack. 
But in discouragement nothing affords us assistance. AVe 
feel that our strength is not sufficient to accomplish what 
God demands of us; and yet confidence in help from above^ 
which is so indispensable^ is wanting. We feel so mis- 
erable that we desire to give up everything; and to this 
precisely the devil loves to Ipad us. 

In other temptations one sees clearly the sinfulness of 
deliberate consent to their suggestions; but in discourage- 
ment the temptation takes a thousand different forms. 
One thinks he is acting upon a pure motive in harboring 
an emotion in which he sees no evil. And yet this feeling 
presents to the soul the persevering practice of virtue as 
something impossible^ and thus exposes her to the danger of 
being carried away by her passions. Hence the importance 
of avoiding such a snare. 

1 This chapter is from a Treatise on Discouragement by Father Michel, S.J. 

197 



198 Preserving Peace Amid Spiritual Weakness. 

We must first be persuaded that discouragement is really 
a temptation^ and nothing else. Every thought which is 
opposed to the Law of God^ whether in itself or in its effects^ 
is a manifest insinuation of the devil. We must weigh 
every suggestion according to this rule: Is the thought that 
troubles us against faith^ hope^ love^ or any other virtue ? 
If so^ we must consider it a temptation^ turn away from it, 
and awaken acts of the opposite virtue. Now the Divine 
Law obliges us equally to the practice of hope and confi- 
dence^ as well as to that of faith and the other virtues. 
Contrary feelings and sentiments are, accordingly, not less 
prohibited than those that oppose the other virtues. A 
certain commandment requires us to make frequent acts of 
faith, hope, and love, thereby interdicting us every wilful, 
deliberate thought or refiection contrary to these three 
divine virtues. Discouragement is, consequently, of itself 
a temptation, in so far as it is opposed to Christian hope. 
But because of its evil consequences it is a particularly 
dangerous temptation, since it leads to the giving up of all 
pious exercises. 

Would you prove this ? Cast a glance at the ordinary 
doings of men. To what does not the hope of success, of 
happiness, of gain, of the gratification of desire or passion, 
not stimulate ? It urges men to action, it animates them 
to exertion, it buoys them up in the combat. Take hope 
from man, and he will soon cease to aim at even what 
appears to him a desirable good. In the spiritual life 
discouragement works similar effects. It unfits men to 
reach their highest end. 

A Christian soul that does not hope to succeed in the 
spiritual w^arfare, and acquire virtue, will undertake little or 
nothing, will never arm herself for the struggle. The most 
trifling exertion made in such a state only increases her 
weakness. By her discouragement she is, in anticipation, 
already half overcome. She allows herself to be con- 
quered by the domineering sw^ay of her passions. A glance 
at her weakness throws her into disquiet and irresolution. 



Discoitragement. 1 99 

Wholly possessed by the thought of the exertion and weari- 
ness that the struggle entails^ losing sight of the principles 
which should guide her^ she miserably succumbs. Blinded 
by fear of defeat, she sees not the weapons that God pre- 
sents her, with which she might so easily gain the victory; 
and thus she rushes unarmed into the snares of the enemy. 
She acts like a child that trembles in the presence of a 
giant, knowing not that a stone cast in the name of the 
Lord could bring him dead to the ground. 

The despondent soul forgets that the goodness of her 
Heavenly Father is her protection and defence. To come 
out of the combat victorious she has only to flee to Him. . . . 

Discouragement not only deprives the soul of discern- 
ment and reflection, but also robs her of the spirit of 
prayer. She then plunges headlong into the abyss. We 
can work out our salvation only with the assistance of 
divine grace, and it is but by uninterrupted and persevering 
prayer that we can obtain this grace. There is no means 
of good more recommended to us in the Holy Scripture 
than prayer. But the first effect of discouragement is to 
withdraw the soul from this holy exercise, under the pretext 
that she performs it so badly that it becomes, if not sinful, 
at least useless. Thus beset, the discouraged soul is de- 
fenceless in the hands of her enemy. Hence we may 
easily perceive the danger of this temptation. 

The discouraged soul should never, never neglect prayer. 
There are among the various forms of prayer many, indeed, 
which presuppose interior peace. Such prayers are impos- 
sible so long as the storm of discouragement and despair 
agitate the soul. They are not at all to be recommended 
to a dejected soul. All that can be expected from her is the 
suppliant cry for help from a heart that feels its misery, 
that exclaims with the humble publican of the Gospel : 
'^0 Lord, have mercy on me, for I am a sinner I^^ or, still 
better, with our loving Saviour in His death agony : 
^'Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from me; 



200 Preserving Peace Amid Spiritual Weakness, 

but not My will^ but Thine be done V^ ' Assuredly^ an 
angel of the Lord will come down to strengthen the pray- 
ing soul and, supported by grace, she will be able to resist 
the assaults of hell. But the most excellent of prayers in 
this temptation is always the awakening of hope, whicli is 
in direct opposition to it. Excite in the hour of combat 
repeated acts of confidence. If you tell me that your heart 
is so full of contrary sentiments that these acts appear to 
you false and hypocritical, I answer: ^^Your speech is 
vain, for there is question not of your sentiments but of 
your wilh'^ When the will is resolved into an act of hope, 
it makes use of the freedom given it. Such an act is 
highly meritorious before God, and at the same time the 
most effective means against the above-mentioned tempta- 
tion. Daily experience proves this. Such a practice has 
often, in one day, freed a soul from the temptation to 
despair from which she had suffered for long years. There- 
fore, we cannot too urgently insist upon discouraged souls 
exercising frequent acts of hope. 

SECOND POINT. 
Why Discouragement occasions so much Harm. 

Why does discouragement produce in the soul effects so 
sad? Listen to my answer to this question : ^^ A disheart- 
ened soul is perfectly convinced of her oft-tried weakness ; 
she feels keenly how hard it is to overcome herself, and how 
seldom she really does so. AYholly occupied with her own 
sad thoughts, she loses courage ; she does nothing for God ; 
she considers it labor lost to seek her refuge in the Lord ; 
for she imagines that, in her present state. He would not 
even hear her. Strange effects of human pride, as if the 
good that Ave do and the happiness to which we aspire 
could be attributed to no one but ourselves. How greatly is 
such a state in opposition with the words of the Holy 
Ghost : '^'^ W'hat hast thou that thou hast not received ?^^ ' 

1 Matt. xxvi. 39. 2 i Cor. iv. 7. 



1 



Discouragement. 20 1 

The despondent soul dwells only on her own efforts, her 
own strength : on these alone she counts; so that her dis- 
couragement decreases, ceases, returns, and increases ac- 
cordingly as she acts w^ell or ill. She forgets that the mercy 
of God, and not her own merit, is her support and help ; 
that the good she does is an effect of the undeserved grace 
of God ; and that the treasury of eternal mercy stands open 
to her in every circumstance, so that in the exercise of 
good works she can always receive the necessary grace. 

If you try to convince such a soul that she ought, in imi- 
tation of the saints, to place all her confidence in the Lord, 
she at once replies : " They were saints, and faithful ser- 
vants of the Lord. It is no wonder that they had confi- 
dence in God ; but as for me, I have no such reason to hope 
in Him." Moreover, she does not see that such a manner 
of speaking is opposed to the maxims of our holy religion. 

Hope is a divine virtue, and, consequently, can be 
founded only on God. But the souls of which we are 
speaking make it a purely human virtue, since they found 
it wholly on man and his actions. No, never have the 
saints hoped in God, because they were faithful to Him ; 
but they were faithful to Hini^ because they hoped in Him. 

Were the alleged objection correct, then no sinner could 
evoke an act of hope ; and yet it is precisely such an act 
that prepares the way for his return to God. 

Kemark that St. Paul does not say: "\ have received 
mercy, because I was faithful," but ^^I give counsel, as 
having obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful." ' Mercy 
always goes before our good works, and obtains for us the 
grace to accomplish them. Never did the saints reflect 
upon their own merits, in order to strengthen their confi- 
dence in God ; on the contrary, they were deeply pene- 
trated with this teaching of the Divine Master: ^'AVhen 
you shall have done all these things that are commanded 
you, say : We are unprofitable servants : we have done that 
which we ought to do."^ The more holy they were, the 

1 I Cor. vii. 25. 2 Luke xvii. 10. 



2 02 Pi^eserving Peace Amid Spiritual Weakness. 

more humble tliey became. In their humility they saw 
but the perfection to which they had not yet attained. 
Far removed from the presumptuous sentiments of the 
proud Pharisee^ they discovered nothing in themselves that 
could rouse confidence ; but they sought and found it in 
God, the immovable foundation of their hope. This plank 
upheld them. Let it likewise encourage you, and give your 
wearied soul new life. 

THIRD POINT. 
The True Foundation of Christian Hope the same for all Men. 

According to the teaching of our holy religion, the foun- 
dation of Christian hope, namely, confidence in God, is the 
same for all men — for the saint and for the sinner. 

Hope is, like faith and love, as we have already said, a 
divine virtue. It must, then, be founded upon God and 
His infinite perfections alone. This precludes any idea of 
personal merit from the motives of this virtue. We do not 
hope in God because Ave have served Him faithfully ; but 
we hope in Him, that we may thereby receive the grace to 
serve Him with fidelity. 

What, then, according to our holy faith, is the founda- 
tion of Christian hope ? Pope St. Benedict XIV. tells us in 
the act of hope composed and published by himself : ^'^ 
my God ! I hope in Thee because Thou art true to Thy 
promises, and because Thou art almighty and infinitely 
merciful. ^^ In this act we see nothing human. All is 
founded upon God. Could there be, I ask, stronger 
motives of hope and confidence than these? 

Our hope rests in all things upon God^s mercy — upon that 
mercy which is more willing to heap graces ujoon us than 
we are to receive them ; upon that love which more sin- 
cerely desires what is for our good than we ourselves, 
and which prevents us with its help without our deserving 
it ; finally, upon that fidelity which in all our trials will 
give sufficient grace and strength in as far as we implore it. 



Discouragement. 203 

This mercy^ wliicli is infinite^ and consequently far greater 
than all the malice of men, has made itself known in the 
most conspicuous and wonderful manner, viz., by God^s 
resignation of His only-begotten Son to death, in order to 
save us. How could he afterward deny us that grace and 
assistance which, by such a sacrifice. He has so dearly pur- 
chased ? 

Secondly, the promise of the Lord secures to us the 
gracious effects of His mercy. God has promised to grant 
us assistance toward our eternal salvation when we pray to 
Him for it. He, the Infinite Truth, cannot deceive us. 
He is faithful to His promises. Holy Scripture calls upon 
us in a hundred places to take refuge in God, who solemnly 
assures us that He wdll Himself be our help and strength. 
Dare we, then, deliberately harbor the least fear that God 
will cast us away from Him or forsake us when we have 
confident recourse to Him? 

Certainly, God deserves that we should call upon Him 
trustingly if we would be favorably heard. But do w^e not 
render ourselves unworthy of His benefits when we pray to 
Him, mistrusting that goodness of which He gives manifold 
proofs at every moment? St. James says: ^'^For he that 
wavereth is like a wave of the sea, which is moved and 
carried about by the wind. Therefore, let not that man 
think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.^^ ^ And 
we see how Jesus Christ in His earthly life worked miracles 
only where He found confidence.^ 

The infinite omnipotence of God is the third motive of 
Christian hope. Men often promise what it is not in their 
power to perform ; but to God, the Almighty, nothing is 
impossible. Xo insurmountable obstacle can be placed m 
the way of His will when He wills to give us graces. In 
the inexhaustible treasury of His gifts He possesses means 
sufficient to lead us to sanctity. Never, then, let us fear to 
ask Him for too many or too great favors. 

God, who is infinitely rich, possesses all goods, natural 

1 James i. 6, 7. 2 Matt. ix. 22. 



204 P7'eservmg Peace Amid Spiritual Weakness. 

and supernatural. God, the Almighty, can communicate 
all these goods to us. God, the All-Good, is ready at all 
times, according to His promise, to give us everything 
necessary for our sanctification. These perfections of God 
are for all men the foundation of Christian hope. They 
alone can give to our confidence the unwavering assurance 
that it should possess. 

FOURTH POINT. 

The Passion and Merits of Christ a new Foundation for Con 

fidence. 

Our Divine Saviour, who died for all men, prayed foi 
all, offered His sufferings and death for all, merited foi 
them the strength needed in the combat of salvation, 
whose victory leads to eternal blessedness. Jesus Christ 
needs not His own merits. He has, therefore, made them 
over to us, and this in such a way, says St. Bernard, that 
they become our own property. If we offer these merits to 
the Heavenly Father, we obtain His powerful assistance 
against the enemies of salvation. Upon this truth Holy 
Church rests when she adds at the close of all her prayers : 
^' Through Jesus Christ Our Lord.^^ 

To these considerations the Christian, racked with the 
memory of his sin-stained life, replies : ^^ How can Jesus 
Christ look upon me favorably after the many offences 
I have offered Him? How can He still intercede for 
an enemy who has so long and so shamefully betrayed 
and despised Him?^^ I reply : How can a well-instructed 
Christian put such a question ? How dare he doubt the 
mercy of his Mediator ? Yes, Christ assures us that He is 
come to suffer and to die for sinners, to seek that which 
was lost. How, then, can the sinner think that he will be 
turned away when he cries for pardon ? K"o, heaven and 
earth shall pass away, but the words of Christ shall not 
pass away. His promises concern sinners. Would He 
have suffered, would He have so cruelly died upon the 



Discouragement. 205 

cross^ if there had been no sinners? The more sinful a 
soul is^ the more resplendently are revealed in her the 
mercy of God and the power of the Saviour's merits. Could 
there be a greater crime than that of Judas? ^' Yes/^ 
answers St. Jerome, ^"^ there is one still more monstrous; 
viz., that of despair. Judas sinned more deeply in killing 
himself than in betraying his Divine Master.'' 

Let us never fear to take refuge in the merits of our 
Kedeemer. We honor these merits when we use them to 
obtain the necessary assistance from God ; for it was with 
this design that Christ gained them and made them over 
to us. By our prayers and good works we appropriate 
them to ourselves, and direct them to their true end. It 
would be a singular mianner of honoring Christ's merits if 
we did not venture to make use of them. That w^ould be 
to run counter to the intention of the Divine Saviour. He 
who leaves unused the precious graces of Jesus Christ, tes- 
tifies thereby not that he esteems them, but that he is in- 
different to them. We acknowledge that we are poor, 
weak, and miserable ; therefore we must strive after riches, 
health, and strength. To this end Christ donated His 
infinite merits : " Come to Me all," said He, in His bound- 
less goodness, ^^and I will refresh you." ^ Do we not walk 
in direct opposition to the maxims, meaning, and intention 
of Our Lord when we fear to take refuge in Him ? 

The enemy makes use of everything he possibly can to 
discourage souls. For this purpose he not unfrequently 
takes advantage of false humility. Christian humility, in 
perfect harmony with reason, requires that we deem our- 
selves unworthy of God's favors ; but it in no wise follows 
that we should reject the graces offered us, or abandon our 
petitions for those He has promised to prayer. Still more, 
the gratitude which we owe Jesus demands that, in con- 
formity with His holy will, we make use of His sufferings 
and merits in order to receive the graces which He thereby 
purchased for us. We cannot give the Lord greater proof 

» Matt. xi. 28. 



2o6 Preserving Peace Amid SpiiHttial Weakness, 

of honor than when we correspond with the loving designs 
of His mercy. 

How can we impetrate God^s offended jnstice^ how im- 
plore His compassion^ if we do not support ourselves upon 
our Kedeemer'^s merits? We appease God only when we 
offer these merits to Him. All in us calls for the just 
punishment of our offences ; but all in His Son calls for 
mercy. As soon as y/e kneel contrite at the foot of the 
cross^ as soon as we wash ourselves in the most adorable 
Blood of the Son of God, the Lord turns to us in mercy^ 
and His justice is appeased. In the atoning death of the 
Mediator, ^"^ mercy and truth have met each other ; justice 
and peace have kissed.^' ' 

FIFTH POINT. 
To be Wanting in Confidence, is to be Wanting in Faith. 

God, the most tender Father of His creatures, has done 
everything to preserve them from that fear which could 
keep them away from Him. He knew well that man, in 
the sentiment of his ingratitude and oft-repeated infidelity, 
would easily relinquish hope, and lose courage to return to 
His Creator in order to seek help from Him in his misery. 
Therefore the All-Merciful gave us not only the assurance 
that all who hope in Him should not be confounded,^ but 
He still more clearly declared to us, on this important point. 
His paternal will. His formal command to hope in Him. 

Unquestionably, only by the help of Ilis grace can we 
fulfil this command. But would God have given it to us 
if He had not wished to help us? And since He has given 
it, how can He remain unmoved when, with an honest and 
upright intention, we cry to Him ? How could He forsake 
us when, to obtain His assistance, we do what He Himself 
has prescribed ? No, the Lord never breaks His word. If 
we are defeated in the combat, it will be only because we 
are wanting in faith. 

i Ps. Ixxxiv. 11. 2 Pj5, xxi. 6. 



D is con ragemen L 207 

The Holy Scriptures furnish us an example of this : 
Peter^ at the word of Jesus Christy hurried over the waves 
with a firm step to meet his Divine Master. The wind 
arose, the confidence of the Apostle wavered ; he began to 
sink ; the threatening danger, though it filled him with 
terror, also animated his courage and confidence anew. 
Peter sought refuge in the Lord, and He extended to him 
His helping hand. For our instruction, Jesus wished not 
to leave His Apostle in doubt as to the cause of his danger. 
He upbraids him with his want of faith : '' thou of lit- 
tle faith! why didst thou doubt ?"^ 

How true a picture of what only too often goes on in the 
Christian soul I So long as the heart is all peace, souls go 
full of confidence to Jesus wherever He calls them. But 
let the storm of temptation arise, let the difficulty of virtue 
be felt, the soul becomes confused, and forgets that she is 
acting upon the word of the Lord. Fear arises, confidence 
wavers. Her first unfaithfulness diminishes her strength, 
and she begins to sink; she is lost if returning confidence 
does not quickly secure help from on high. 

Peter would have been lost had he not called Jesus to 
his assistance. But the good Master would not let him 
sink to rise no more. Would you also. Christian soul, 
who have imitated the Apostle in his weakness, cry with 
him to the Lord instead of losing precious time in anxiety 
and complaints, you w^ould certainly feel the protection of 
Jesus, you would experience His assistance ; you would be 
spared the many faults, the many w^eary hours, that your 
w^ant of confidence draws npon you. You have yourself 
alone to blame if you do not, in the moment of need, grasp 
the hand extended to you by the Divine Master. It is 
always stretched forth to you. You know the danger; you 
know the means of escaping it ; therefore it is your own 
fault if you do not follow the interior light. 

1 Matt. xiv. 31, 



2c8 Preserving Peace Amid Spiritual Weakness, 

SIXTH POINT. 
No Victory without Combat; No Combat without Labor. 

We can readily admit that the motives of Christian hope 
are firm and secure ; but the devil knows hoAV, under a 
thousand pretexts^ to deceive the discouraged soul^ and 
turn her away from her true end. Man by nature is sloth- 
ful; he fears every exertion. As soon as he gives himself 
up to God^s service^ he desires to taste the sweets of his 
offering without its costing him the least trouble. Only 
too gladly does he forget Christ's assurance: -'*'The king- 
dom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it 
away.'' ^ He does not reflect that it was by suffering Christ 
would enter into His glory, and that He has led His saints 
thereto only by the cross, by combats, sacrifices, and re- 
nouncement. Heaven is a reward ; but it must be merited, 
by placing God and His holy will before all else, even that 
wdiich is dearest to us. As soon as He demands it, Ave 
must be prepared to offer all to Him as a sacrifice, a whole 
burnt-offering. This is an incontrovertible principle. St. 
Paul declares that no one will be crowned who has not 
fought valiantly.'^ He Avho would claim the crown of jus- 
tice without combating, contradicts the maxims of faith ; 
and he who would fight without labor and exertion, con- 
tradicts sound reason. 

We know well what God requires of us ; and this knowl- 
edge is precisely what the devil employs to discourage us. 
He tempts us to yield to our innate sluggishness, and to 
omit the efforts necessary for salvation. It costs us noth- 
ing to follow our natural inclinations, but it is painful to 
us to fight against them. It is, consequently, an easy mat- 
ter for the enemy to persuade us to choose the former mode 
of action. 

In order to confirm us still more in our evil choice, he 
places before us the various sufferings we must expect in 

i Matt. xi. 12. 2 n. Tim. ii. 5. 



Discott7'ageinent. 2 09 

the service of God^ the continual violence we shall have to 
undergo in fighting and overcoming self. At the same 
time the tempter conceals the interior peace lie enjoys who 
gives himself up wholly to God^ and the great consolation 
the hope of eternal reward imparts even amidst the most 
painful sufferings. He shows us our own weakness in its 
fullest extent ; reminds us of the faults committed in spite 
of the best resolutions ; and extinguishes^ so to say^ every 
thought of the mercy and power of that God by whose 
assistance we have so often obtained the victory. 

The following picture will portray the progress of this 
fatal condition of the soul : Quite overwhelmed by the 
thought of our weakness and the difficulty of our work^ 
we yield to dejection instead of exclaiming with the Royal 
Prophet : ^^ If armies in camp should stand together against 
me, my heart shall not fear, because Thou, my God, art with 
me V^ ^ In her sadness and dejection the soul hardly sees 
the assistance of Heaven. She depends little upon it, she 
scarcely ventures to pray for it ; perhaps^ too^ she fears to 
receive it, since she must then renounce her cherished in- 
clinations to evil. She imagines that she cannot continually 
do violence to herself, since she experiences in her soul zo 
great opposition ; therefore, in this condition of interior 
dejection she does nothing, or almost nothing, to overcome 
herself. The first fault she commits strengthens her in 
the fear that she will never succeed in the struggle^ and 
confirms her opinion that she must await the time when 
her passions will be less violent. 

To such a soul everything is hard. Her duties are dis- 
agreeable, because disgust and a secret longing for inde- 
pendence have taken possession of her heart. She either 
neglects her pious exercises or performs them so negligently 
that they fail to draw down God's grace upon her. Dissi- 
pation of mind and heart banishes the recollection that once 
accompanied her actions. She gives up her good works^ 
resists grace and the twitchings of conscience^ turns from 

1 JPs. XX vi, 3; xxii. 4, 



2 lo Preserving Peace Amid Spiritual Weakness^ 

holy thoughts^ and allows her humors^ fancies^ and inclina- 
tions to guide her in all things, because in so doing she has 
no need to overcome self. In spite of the uneasiness by 
which she is, through the mercy of God, pursued, she w^ould 
rather remain in this tepid and slothful condition than do 
violence to self for the love of God. This is exactly the 
point to which the Evil One desires to bring her. He wants 
to divert her from the care of her salvation, and through 
her discouragement he has obtained his end. 

I have perhaps entered too fully into particulars; but by 
this means only can we learn to know the attacks of the 
enemy, and more easily frustrate his efforts. 

I can understand the intimidation of a soul that contem- 
plates as present the difficulties to be encountered in the 
service of God during a whole lifetime. But do the suffer- 
ings of the Christian life come upon us all at once ? Has 
one to bear them in the whole ? Certainly not. He bears 
them singly, sometimes this, sometimes that, as occasions 
offer. If there are some that often fall heavily upon us, 
there are others again that come but seldom. Against the 
first you must particularly arm yourself ; the latter you will 
best ward off by the frequent exercise of the love of God. 
Our cowardice would indeed be great if we had not cour- 
age to oppose a single enemy, whose only weapon is often 
our own weakness. If you fear him, you are already con- 
quered. If you call upon God, and with His help offer 
valiant resistance, the enemy will not long hold out. He 
will flee, and perhaps will not soon return. 

Never consider as a whole those events that come singly. 
The soul has to account only for the actions of the moment. 
If, instead of acting thus, you fill your mind with thoughts 
of possible sufferings, it will be to trouble yourself about 
uncertainties, to set out to meet all sorts of temptations. 
By such a line of conduct one does not wait to be tempted, 
one becomes his own tempter. You act very unreasonably 
when you draw on your imagination for what may, perhaps, 
never happen to you. '''Sufficient for the day is the evil 



iXiscourageinent. 1 1 1 

thereof/^ ^ To put ourselves in the way of temptation is con- 
trary to the teachings of religion and Christian prudence.^ 

The soul that does violence to herself to please God and 
in the hope of a reward^ thinking in every suffering how 
she can make a holy use of it^ will not only find her burdens 
lighter^ but she will carry them with greater merit. 

A religious^ for example^ feels strong repugnance to the 
continual restraint imposed upon her by obedience and the 
rules of her Order. If she looks upon this contradiction of 
her natural feelings^ views this subjection as the yoke of a 
whole lifetime, she becomes perplexed and discouraged. 
But if she considers the restraint as but for one day, for 
some hours, or merely for the time that it will take for her 
present occupation, she will not find it so hard. Generally 
speaking, difficulties are but the matters of a moment ; 
trouble vanishes as soon as a courageous resolution is made. 

You deceive yourself, also, when you think that the effort 
which self-conquest now costs you will always remain as 
gi'eat and as painful. Experience drawn from the nature 
of things teaches us, that by the frequent performance of 
any action with purity of intention it soon becomes a cus- 
tom, and thereby easier in its fulfilment. Do violence to 
yourself for some time in the faithful and punctual per- 
formance of a single action, and you will find that it will 
soon cost you no effort ; the difficulty has vanished, and 
the pious intention has come, as it were, of itself. This 
experience is so lively, that it actually becomes a cause of 
alarm to many souls. They imagine that they have no 
merit for the performance of what no longer costs them a 
sacrifice. They do not consider that the true value of an 
action consists in the supernatural motive that animates it, 
and not in the labor it entails. 

Again, our holy religion tells us that God rewards with 
special graces the fidelity with which, through love of Him, 

1 Matt. vi. 34. 

2 Farther on we shall see what is said on the difference between great, cour- 
ageous souls and weak, desponding ones. At present we address the latter. 



2 1 2 Preserving Peace Amid Spirihtal Weakness, 

we have conquered ourselves ; so tliat suffering becomes 
not only easy^ but even sweet. Though God may leave us 
long the sentiment of sufferings yet He never permits us to 
be tried beyond our strength. Confide in His Divine Word^ 
for It cannot deceive. 

Never reflect upon the uncertainty of perseverance with- 
out remembering the promised helps and reward : the latter 
thought will always console and animate you anew. 

SEVENTH POmT. 

He who Anticipates Future Combats and Sufferings Tempts 
both God and Himself. 

Against the foregoing assertion some one may perhaps 
make the following objections: ^^ One must be prepared to 
fulfil his duties. XoW:, when I see mine before me^ and, 
conscious of my own weakness to meet the gigantic struggle 
a whole life long, I say to myself: ^How is it possible not to 
tremble and be discouraged?^ ^^ 

It has already been remarked that the effort does not 
always continue so violent and sensible as it is in the begin- 
ning ; neither are you to measure future by present trouble. 
Correspond with the present grace vouchsafed you by Al- 
mighty God, and hope that in the future He will not with- 
hold what is necessary. 

Furthermore, God forbids presumptuous seeking after 
temptation. He has not promised His assistance to those 
who, by foolish and senseless anticipation, go to meet imagi- 
nary trials, and in fancy conjure up temptations that may 
perhaps never come upon them. You have not now the 
strength even to look these temptations in the face ; and 
this for the simple reason, that the time for combat not 
being at hand, you have not yet the graces which God holds 
in reserve for the hour of trial. It is, then, no wonder that 
their sight appalls you. Why, contrary to the will of the 
Lord, do you thus tempt yourself ? 

Why should you desire to know how the heavy crosses, the 



Discouragement, 2 1 3 

violent temptations^ the obstinate combats that others have 
to endure^ would affect you in case anything of the kind 
should befall you ? God has promised to strengthen your 
will when He demands of you great sacrifices, but He has 
not promised to do so if you wilfully allow your imagination 
to place you in situations that are now and may perhaps 
ever be foreign to you. A truly Christian soul is humble : 
far from seeking the danger, she fears and avoids it. But 
you, through temerity, through secret presumption, hidden 
self-love, court the temptation. Then, do you wonder that 
your will is weak and irresolute ? God gives us His grace 
not in accordance with our humor, but in proportion to our 
needs. Its measure is determined by His providence. This 
is precisely the temptation that often deludes the imprudent 
or badly instructed. They live in an imaginary future, 
filled with sacrifices which the Spirit of God has not yet 
revealed to them ; and they turn away from those of the 
present moment, which He really demands of them. Such 
souls, whilst pursuing shadows, lose sight of the reality. 

To please God, pious souls must not in imagination 
extract the juice from every bitter herb, under the pretext 
that thereby real suffering is endured with greater mag- 
nanimity. Their intention may be good in itself, but God, 
far from willing, rather forbids such a practice. It is in 
reality nothing more nor less than tempting God. Hence, 
however good your intention may be, do not trust it ; rather 
divert your mind from such thoughts. God expects you to 
be prepared only in a general way to avoid mortal sin and 
its occasions, and resignedly to carry the cross that His 
providence daily lays upon you. He is not desirous that 
you prepare in imagination for all kinds of crosses, and thus 
carry them before the time. 

If without your concurrence such trials present them- 
selves to your mind, full of love and confidence raise your 
heart to God, and say: '^^My God ! if thou dost permit this 
trial to come upon me, I hope in Thy promises and through 
the merits of Jesus Christ that Thou wilt help me to bear 



2 14 Preserving Peace Amid Spiritual Weakness, 

it aright/^ After this short prayer^ put all such fancies 
aside. Give yourself to your present duty ; show yourself 
on every occasion strong and courag^oous ; and by such 
fidelity you will better and more safely prove your love for 
God. ^ 

EIGHTH POINT. 

Aversion, Disgust, and Weariness in God's Service are not 
Unfrequently the Sources of Unreasonable Discouragement. 

A soul that^ in spite of persevering prayer, is constantly 
assailed by her predominant fault or some obstinate temp- 
tation, or that experiences in the service of God only dis- 
gust, w^eariness, and aversion, often falls into the grossest 
errors. The devil ^vhispers that God does not hear her, and 
that her prayers are useless, thus plunging her into the 
abyss of discouragement. In this pitiable state she beholds 
in God only a hard-hearted, inflexible, exasperated Master, 
to please whom no one may dare to hope. 

Such a soul, whom the Lord proves without abandoning, 
errs especially when she thinks that, because of her repug- 
nance and weariness, what she does is not agreeable to God 
and meritorious to herself. This thought saddens her at 
first, then tortures her, and finally quite discourages her, 
if God does not hear her petition to restore her lost conso- 
lation, her sensible fervor. Let me now lead the soul back 
to the w^ay of truth, and she will soon recover her peace: 
she will perceive that the state in which she is has been 
esteemed by her a bad one only because she has not judged 
it by sound religious principles. 

Disgust, weariness, aversion, and their attendant tempta- 
tions are not sins in themselves, — no, not even imperfec- 
tions; consequently, there can be no possible reason why 
the fulfilment of duty under such trial should be less agree- 
able to God or less meritorious to the performer. Men, 
Avho do not see the heart, judge the value of an action by 
its exterior merit. Thence it is that the way in which au 



Discottragement. 2 1 5 

action is accomplished very greatly enhances or diminishes 
the value of said action in their eyes. But this is not the 
case with God. He penetrates hearts and their secret 
folds^ He judges the uprightness of the intention by the 
sentiment itself^ and not ])y its expression. To fulfil His 
holy will is all that He demands. 

The indisputable evidence of this truth is found in the 
word and example of Jesus Christ. He tells us: ^"^He that 
doth the Avill of My Father who is in heaven^ he shall enter 
into the kingdom of heaven. ^^ ^ He does not desire us to 
fulfil His divine Avill with sensible joy, or that we find in it 
sensible satisfaction; but He requires that we accomplish it 
at any cost^ and for this He promises us eternal happiness. 
When, then, the feeling of disgust and repugnance does 
not hinder a Christian soul from doing what God demands 
of her; or, in other words, when it does not prevent her 
from performing the duties of her state of life, it cannot be 
evil. It can neither retard her perfection nor deprive her 
of eternal life. 

Our Divine Lord confirms this by His own teaching and 
example. He who was incapable not only of sin, but even 
of the least imperfection, deigned for our instruction and 
consolation to endure all our trials. It was for this reason 
that He allowed the devil to tempt Him to pride, vanity, 
vainglory, and presumption; and by a glance at His suffer- 
ings in the Garden of Olives He deigned to feel for man's 
ingratitude the deepest sadness and trouble along Avith 
violent abhorrence for the cross. But He was on this oc- 
casion not less an object of admiration to heaven and of 
complacency to His Heavenly Father; for His temptations, 
His dejection, and His natural aversion could not shake 
His faithful submission to the Divine AYill. 

Christ has plainly shown by this that such states of in- 
terior trial, even when reaching the highest degree in a 
soul, far from being evils, are not even imperfections; and 

1 Matt. vii. 21. 



2 16 Preserving Peace Amid Spirihcal Weakness. 

that, in spite of tliem, her works are meritorious and agree- 
able to God. 

I cannot press home this truth emphatically enough; for 
I know that many souls, notwithstanding the teaching and 
example of Christ on this head, are still disturbed. They 
have read that one should serve God joyfully: hence, as 
soon as this feeling of joyfulness is wanting— a feeling that 
is in no wise demanded by Christ— they think they are far 
from God, even reprobate. They do not consider that such 
a disposition of soul does not depend upon them, but on 
God, as we shall more fully explain. 

Let us Judge matters according to true religious princi- 
ples. So long as you do not assent to these temptations of 
disgust, weariness, and aversion, they are involuntary, they 
depend not upon you. Were it in your power to have it 
otherwise, you certainly would not experience what causes 
you so much affliction. The feeling, therefore, which does 
not depend upon you, to which you have not yielded, and 
which you have ever combated, cannot render you guilty 
before God. In His eyes you are accountable only for what 
you actually do or leave undone, for what depends on your 
own free-will. 

This is a truth of which, according to the unanimous 
decision of the Church, you cannot doubt, and of which 
reason itself convinces. What idea should we necessarily 
form of God's goodness and justice if He punished men 
for what they could not avoid? 

Hence it is certain that aversions and temptations do 
not in themselves make us displeasing to God. For the 
consolation of troubled and dejected souls, we may add 
that if, in spite of their trials, they still remain faithful to 
the fulfilment of their duties, they give God a greater, a 
more ardent, proof of love, receive more marks of His 
grace, and through their good works acquire more merit 
than if they were inundated with sensible fervor and ex- 
perienced no difficulties at all. It cannot be doubted that 
our love for God is proved to be stronger the more enemies 



Discouragement, 2 1 7 

we conquer and the more obstacles we overcome in the ac- 
complishment of His will. If this love were weak within 
us we could never succeed in opposing assaults so violent; 
but the less sensible our love^ the more powerful it is^ and 
the more meritorious. 

Assuredly^ the soul may often commit faults in these 
wearisome and obstinate combats^ for such is the fate of 
man here below. But this is no cause for disturbance; 
such faults are soon repaired by the numerous sacrifices the 
soul perpetually offers to the Lord. If you carry your cross 
with resignation^ if you follow the interior light of faith^, if 
you overcome and deny yourself at every moment^ how can 
you, for some trifling fault, fear being expelled from the 
number of ChrisVs disciples? Has not Our Saviour said: 
^^If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, 
and take up his cross, and follow Me.^^ ^ And this is what 
the faithful soul does, despite her aversions and repugnances. 
How, then, can she think that God will allow so many sacri- 
fices to go unrewarded? "Iso,^^ says St. Paul, '^'^God is 
not unjust that He should forget your good works and 
your sufferings. ^^ ^ Persevere, faithful and tried soul! 
Your reward is before you. In you shall be realized the 
promises of Infinite Truth. Yet some few days of toil, and 
then an eternity of unending happiness, a foretaste of which 
you will very probably enjoy even in this life; for after 
trials God generally sends consolation, peace, and joy to the 
purified soul. This will be your experience, as it was that 
of the saints. 

OTNTII POINT. 

We should not Pray God to Free us from our Sufferings and 

Combats. Should we do so, we must not Desire to 

have such Petitions Immediately Granted. 

In spite of all these consoling truths, we must still con- 
fess that the state of repugnance and dryness is always 
hard to bear. Man is by nature an enemy to exertion and 

1 Matt. xvi. -24. 2 Hebrews vi. 10. 



2 1 8 Preserving Peace Amid Spiritual Weakness. 

self-victory. He feels keenly the conflict against self; and ' 
under this feeling he forgets what rich reward he can draw 
thence, what merit every victory secures him. In his de- 
solation he turns to God for help; but for what does he 
pray? For an end to his trials, for freedom from his suffer- 
ings. If he finds that he is not immediately heard, that the 
Lord still afflicts him, he fancies his prayer useless, and 
that his petitions will not be granted. Disquiet, fear, and 
discouragement take possession of his heart. In this frame 
of mind he knows not how to pray; indeed, he hardly ven- 
tures to pray at all. Probably he says with Jesus: ^^My 
Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from Me;^^ but 
he takes good care not to add with his Divine Master, 
^^nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt. ^^^ One 
must be deeply penetrated with the principles of faith 
before reaching that humble resignation which draws down 
the special care of Divine Providence. 

Eeligion teaches that God so guides and leads His faith- 
ful servants that everything serves to His own glory and 
their true happiness. It belongs to God to determine how 
to dispose of men for His own honor, on what road to lead 
them to sanctity and bliss. Should the creature serve 
God according to his own humor and fancy, or should he 
prescribe to his Maker how he is to be guided, — that would 
be a manifest sign of foolishness. It would be to reduce 
human passions and errors to a rule of life. 

Before God, subjection is man^s duty. All that he has 
to do is to know the way upon which God wishes to lead 
him, and to follow it willingly and confidingly. It belongs 
to God to devise the plan, and to men, with God^s assistance, 
to carry it out. The man who enters with these sentiments 
upon the way mapped out by God will certainly be led by 
Him most safely and securely to salvation ; for the Lord, 
who has chosen the path by which to conduct souls to 
eternal happiness, gives them also special graces to walk 
uprightly and honestly in it. Pursue this path faith* 

1 Matt. xxvi. 39. 



Discouragement, 2 1 9 

fully, and you will constantly correspond with the dispen- 
sations of the Divine Will over you ; you may count upon 
the special protection of the Almighty, who cannot desert 
a soul that He sees in such sentiments. 

AVhen God wills to lead a soul to heaven by the way of 
trial, suffering, antipathy, and disgust, should she pray to 
the Lord to change His will and designs? She may do it, 
for we see that Christ Himself did so. Such a prayer has 
often been granted. If God allows us to wait long for a 
grace, it by no means signifies that He has refused it. A 
persevering prayer shall, indeed, be granted, and that at 
the moment appointed by the Lord wiierein to show His 
mercy. But should a soul make deliverance from interior 
suffering the exclusive condition of her prayer, so as to be- 
come discouraged and dejected if God does not hear her, 
she would be very unlike to Christ and His saints. She 
would rather consent to the suggestions of the tempter, who 
is seeking to turn her from God, and withdraw her from 
the guidance of His providence. 

The first and most desirable object of your prayer should 
be the virtue of perfect resignation to God's will, and the 
strength to bear with patience, fidelity, and love the state 
in which God places you for your sanctification. Be per- 
suaded that you do not deserve God's particular favor ; 
and that it is an act of His infinite mercy to receive the 
relapsing sinner, not as a child, but, in the words of the 
prodigal son, as the least of His hired servants. In the 
spirit of penance, then, accept your state of dryness, 
abandoning yourself wholly and submissively into the 
hands of the Lord, willing to endure as long as it may be 
conducive to His honor and glory. Such a disposition is 
the best means to obtain from God the cessation of a most 
painful trial. 

You think God does not hear you because He leaves you 
in the state of disgust and temptation from which you wish 
to be freed. The principles of our holy religion declare 
you to be in error. Is your prayer resigned ? Is it full of 



2 20 Preserving Peace Amid Spirihtal Weakness, 

confidence ? Is it persevering ? Then, in accordance witli 
the promise of Christ, it will be granted. Perhaps God 
may not give you precisely that for which you pray; but He 
withholds it only because it is less useful to you than some- 
thing else that He has resolved to bestow, or because the bad 
use you would make of it would render it hurtful. Instead 
of the grace which in His mercy He denies you. He will 
send you others much more precious. He will give you 
graces that will support you in the combat, and render you 
capable of attaining to the perfection of Christian virtues, 
and by self-denial, mortification, resignation, and penance 
aid you to amass great merits for heaven ; yet so that 
even when victorious you will feel your own nothingness, 
be convinced of your own weakness, and thus preserve 
Christian humility, the foundation of true virtue. You 
will by their help be vigilant over yourself, and keep up 
constant intercourse with God, whose assistance will appear 
to you ever more and more indispensable. 

How wonderful does not the guiding providence of the 
Lord appear in St. Paul I Eepeatedly did he cry to God 
to deliver him from the humiliating temptations that mo- 
lested him. The Lord, however, permitted them in order 
to preserve his humility in the exalted revelations vouch- 
safed him.^ Whilst refusing to free him, God addressed to 
him these consoling words: ^^My grace is sufficient for 
thee V ' 

If, then, God refuses to shorten the sufferings of a tried 
soul, it does not imply that He is far from her, that He has 
not heard her, or that He refuses her petition. He has, 
we must conclude, other intentions over her. Though He 
does not see fit to deliver her, yet He is always ready to 
support her. 

1 II. Cor. xii, 7. 2 h. Cor. xii. 9. 



CHAPTER IV 

Of Temptations/ 

FIRST POiisrT. 
Temptations are no Proof that God has Forsaken a Soul. 




EMPTATIONS are any thoughts, desires, senti- 
ments, or inclinations that impel us to violate 
the Divine Law for some self-satisfaction. They 
should neither frighten nor discourage a Christian. Against 
two sorts of souls the evil one chiefly wages war : 1st, against 
those that, overcoming their passions and courageously fol- 
lowing the path of virtue and perfection, truly serve God ; 
and 2d, against those that, turning from their evil w^ays, 
shake from their shoulders the heavy yoke of sin. xigainst 
such souls the devil puts all his engines in motion to sepa- 
rate them from the love of Jesus Christ. The o^Dposition 
of the Evil One, rightly considered, should rather be a 
source of consolation ; for it shows that we are antagonistic 
to the enemy of our salvation, and that we adhere firmly 
to the will of God. A. little firmness, and the victory is 
ours ! 

A soul anxious by nature, or one that God has led for a 
considerable time along the way of peace and consolation, 
easily fancies that He is angry with her — indeed, that He 
has utterly forsaken her — when He sends her temptations. 
She cannot think that God can find pleasure in one whose 
heart is filled with and vehemently agitated by sentiments 
so contrary to virtue. These artifices are the last efforts 
of the devil for the ruin of souls whom he failed to allure 

1 All the points of this chapter, with the exception of the Ninth, Twelfth, and 
Thirteenth, are taken from Father MichePs work on " Temptations." The Thir- 
teenth point is from Fenelon. 

221 



22 2 Preserving Peace Amid Spiritital Weakness. 

by the enticement of sin. He seeks to rob them of that 
confidence which sustained them in the combat. 

A soul that listens to such insinuations falls into the 
grossest errors. He who has even slight experience in the 
spiritual life and in God^s guidance will not be surprised 
at the attacks he has to endure. Indeed, we know from 
Holy Scripture that the life of man upon earth is a con- 
tinual warfare^ and that he must constantly carry arms to 
defend himself both within and without. Within^ against 
the enemies of his own household — his inclinations, passions, 
our self-love, which seek to seduce him under a thousand 
pretexts and artifices ; without, from the influence of bad 
example, the fear of men, and of the hellish fiend, who in 
his jealousy has from the begftining sworn enmity against 
the happiness of mankind. Furthermore, the same Holy 
Scripture tells us that only through victory can we tread 
the path to heaven, and that no one will be crowned till he 
has, conformably to the Law, striven manfully to the end.^ 

St. Paul prayed to be freed from his temptations, yet he 
did not consider their continuance a sign of God's anger. 
The saints who, even in the desert, during the practice of 
the severest penance, were long and violently assailed by the 
Evil One considered their temptations as occasions of com- 
bat and merit, for they well understood the words of Scrip- 
ture : ^'^And because thou wast acceptable to God, it was 
necessary that temptation should prove thee.^^^ This is, 
according to the principles of faith, the only just view of 
the matter. You should look temptation boldly in the 
face ; then it will neither perplex nor discourage you. 

Temptations are never a sign tliat a soul has been for- 
saken by God, for the Lord never wholly deserts man dur- 
ing his earthly existence. They are, for the most part, 
trials, or sometimes punishments. Divine Justice brings 
His creatures under the rod of correction for negligence in 
His service, for certain weaknesses, tepidity, and presump- 
tion^ or for natural inclinations that the heart too keenly 

-1 II. Tim. ii. 5, » Tobias xij. 13, 



Temptations, 223 

cherishes. But whether they be punishments or trials, 
they must always be accepted with resignation, and faith- 
fully resisted. God is our most tender Father. With His 
justice He always couples mercy and mildness. To prayer 
and confidence He never denies His grace. He will not 
condemn us, although He may punish us in order to bring 
us back to Himself. Let no one, therefore, lose courage 
when he is tempted. God will pardon those that willingly 
accept the penance He imposes. 

SECOND POINT. 
Temptations are no Evidence of a Bad State of Soul. 

Frequent temptations are, in general, a sign of the exist- 
ence of violent passions, and a strong tendency to evil in 
the soul ; but when we fight against them they are not 
proofs of a heart estranged from God. Since the sin of 
our first parents our inclinations have been corrupt ; and 
not unfrequently this innate disposition to evil is strength- 
ened by the influence of the senses upon the soul. It is 
this downward tendency which exposes us more or less to 
temptation, in proportion to the susceptibility of our senses. 
But as all this does not depend upon our own will, nor 
proceed from our own heart, so neither is it a sign that 
our heart is infected by any special vice. The heart is not 
rendered guilty by this liability of the senses to evil : it 
rather suffers under it. If it masters that tendency, and 
faithfully clings to virtue, then it is good, and remains such, 
however violent those inclinations may be. 

The constant resistance of temptation is, on the contrary, 
the mark of a truly Christian heart. It is, on the one side, 
a proof of our love for God; and on the other, of the divine 
protection over us. This thought should console us, and 
increase our confidence. We are indebted to the divine 
mercy for our determined opposition to evil inclinations ; 
and the greater the danger of a defeat, the more powerful 
and evident is God^s assisting grr.ce. 



2 24 Preserving Peace Amid Spiritital Weakness. 

Your conclusion^ consequently^ is false when you say : 
" Were my heart and mind what they ought to be^ did they 
really belong only to God, thoughts and feelings contrary to 
the love of the neighbor, thoughts against faith, purity, 
etc., would not rise up in me/^ 

Indeed, if such thoughts and feelings depended on you, 
then the case would be quite different, and you might 
justly say your heart was turned far from God. But they 
depend not at all upon your will. They glide impercep- 
tibly into the mind and heart, or they rush in suddenly 
with impetuous violence without questioning your will, and 
what is still worse, they take up their abode in spite of 
your efforts to dislodge them. They are not, therefore, an 
expression, an act of your free-will ; it is not in your power 
to have or not to have them ; and hence they prove noth- 
ing at all as to the state of your soul. 

Only through the sentiments that proceed from reflection 
and free-will does the heart cling to an object. A soul 
may belong entirely to God in spite of the sentiments con- 
trary to virtue that arise in her, provided they be involun- 
tary and displease her. Yes, I go farther, and assert that 
the trouble the soul experiences in such attacks is a decided 
proof that she sincerely loves God and her duty, and faith- 
fully adheres to both. Were your love of God and hatred 
of sin less strong, you would not be troubled ; you would 
follow your natural inclinations and satisfy your desires. 
The infallible mark of our love for God is that which He 
Himself has given us, viz., firmness in combating our evil 
inclinations. The greatest saints, even the Apostle to the 
Gentiles, were not exempt from these trials, and yet they 
loved God most perfectly. Jesus Christ for our instruction 
would even allow Himself to be tempted. And what He, 
the Holiest of. the holy, would suffer in His adorable 
humanity cannot be a sin ; no, not even an imperfection, 
for He is as incapable of the one as of the other. We can- 
not^ then, be either guilty or subject to punishment when 



Tempt a tions. 225 

we endure what He experienced and as He experienced it^ 
provided we resist as far as our weakness permits. 

THIRD POINT. 

In Temptation we should Turn to God. He Sustains us in the 
Combat without our Perceiving it. 

In those interior storms that so often break upon us we 
feel sometimes that the hand of the Lord is sustaining us 
in the contest^ and we fight valiantly against our passions. 
The thought of the presence of God and the desire to please 
Him rouse our courage and confidence. But, again^ God 
sometimes conceals Himself. He appears to sleep^ as once 
before in the disciples^ little bark^ whilst the stormy weaves 
threatened to destroy it. In this case the danger is greater^ 
inasmuch as sudden fear easily takes possession of us and 
paralyzes our efforts. 

But courage I Even in this critical moment there is 
nothing to fear, if you raise your eyes to the heights of 
heaven, whence cometh all our help. When the disciples 
on the lake saw themselves in danger of being submerged 
they lost no time in useless lamentation. They put forth 
all their energy against the violence of the storm, and 
sought refuge with their Divine Master, calling on Him 
for help. But He was asleep;^ and yet, unknown to the 
disciples, He had Himself suggested all that they did to 
insure their safety. And precisely thus it happens. God 
sometimes hides Himself from our gaze, but He notes none 
the less carefully all that passes in our heart. We think 
at every moment we must sink, and yet we continue to 
brave the storm. 

AVhence the light that points out the right way and 
guides us upon it ? Whence the secret impulse that ani- 
mates us anew, that urges us almost unconsciously to choose 
the proper means and to put it into execution ? Whence 
our courage, sinking apparently at every moment, and yet 

J5 



2 26 Preserving Peace Amid Spiritital Weakness, 

in reality gaining fresh strength? Whence that firmness 
which we oppose to the aUurements of iniquity ? Whence 
all this ? From ourselyes ? Could we, weak as we are^ 
trust ourselves alone to oppose the enemy ? Is it not rather 
Christ who sustains us with His mighty hand^ although 
hiding Himself from our eyes^ concealing His sensible 
presence ? Is it not He who has promised that we shall 
never be tempted beyond our strength ? Yes^ even when 
we think the Lord far from us, He is in the midst of our 
heart. We imagine that He has forgotten us, and yet He 
is thinking of us more than ever, since we then most need 
Him. He sees our struggles. He assists at them as He did 
at St. Stephen^s; and if we do not lose confidence^ He will 
accord us victory over all our enemies. 

FOURTH POINT. 

How one may Know whether or not he has Consented to 
Temptation. 

What most troubles souls whom God leads in the thorny 
path of temptation is the fear they have of offending Him, 
and the doubt as to whether or not they have voluntarily 
yielded. The following instructions may help to clear up 
this doubt: 

We are not perfect master of our mind and heart. We 
cannot prevent their being occupied with this or that 
thought, with this or that sentiment. Frequently they 
come upon us so suddenly that the mind is unconsciously 
carried after the suggestion. We are so absorbed that we 
neither hear nor see; we cannot even recall the precise 
moment in which such thoughts began to take possession 
of us. This remark holds good in regard to all sorts of 
thoughts and feelings. 

Such a state lasts a longer or a shorter time according to 
the strength of the interior or exterior impressions from 
which they proceed, or according to the length of time 
tliey are allowed uninterrupted possession. It is only after 



Temptations, 227 

thair flight that the soul clearly and distinctly understands 
with Avhat she has been occupied. Now if at the moment 
of awaking to self-consciousness she turns from the evil 
thoughts and feelings as quickly as possible^ she may be 
reasonably assured that she has not sinned. The pleasure 
she experiences in being freed from such thoughts and 
feelings is an almost incontestable evidence that her will 
had no deliberate part in them. The mind^ indeed^ was 
occupied with the idea; but reflection^ the voluntary con- 
sent of the will, did not step in. Every offence against 
God depends upon two conditions: the will on the one side 
must deliberately consent to evil; and on the other it must 
have the power to resist that evil. But neither of these 
conditions is possible in the absence of full consciousness; 
hence without that no sin can be committed. The prompt 
rejection of evil thoughts and feelings at the very moment 
the soul becomes aware of them is^ moreover, evidence of 
good and pious sentiments. It proves that the temptation 
could certainly not have arisen, would never have been 
entertained, had she been conscious of its approach. She 
should, accordingly, behave as if the bad thoughts and 
sentiments began at the very instant she perceived them. 
At that point she should begin her examination of con- 
science, leaving unnoticed all that preceded. If one finds 
that he has resisted at the moment marked, he may and 
should be at peace. 

The above-mentioned spiritual embarrassments often last 
along time; as, for example, during prayer, in which invol- 
untary distractions seize upon us and fetter the powers of 
the soul. That these distractions last long makes them 
neither voluntary nor deliberate; for it depends as little 
upon our will to cut a distraction short as to prevent it 
entirely. The distraction is, then, not sinful; since an 
evil thought that unconsciously absorbs us is not a sin. 
That we have dwelt long upon it does not make us amen- 
able if we have not been aware of the fact; nor is it difficuJt 
to decide in cases of this kind. 



2 28 Preserving Peace Amid Spiritttal Weakness. 

It seems to me well to say a few words here of tempta- 
tions to despair; for the impression they make^ especially 
upon scrupulous souls^ is so fearful^ that one is often unable 
to form a correct judgment of them. Gerson says: ^^As 
violent temptations to blasphemy, to heresy and unbelief, 
or to impurity, do not render us guilty, neither should we 
accuse a soul of despair when, in consequence of fears and 
scruples which often play an active part in such tempta- 
tions, she imagines and even declares herself guilty and 
damned/^ The holiest souls, St. Francis de Sales for in- 
stance, have had to straggle with this trial. Such thoughts 
often appear both determined and voluntary when, in reality, 
so far from being wilful, they are generally accompanied by 
interior opposition. This opposition rises from the secret 
confidence in God that dwells in the depths of the terrified 
soul without her perceiving it. When the violence of the 
temptation is over, ask her whether or not she really believes 
in God^s willingness to forgive her if she humbly repents. 
She will answer you in the affirmative, adding: ^^I feared 
at first that I had yielded. My agitation rendered me no 
longer mistress of my thoughts. N"ow that the storm has 
passed, I would not for all the world have the misfortune to 
consent to feelings so dishonorable to the Divine Goodness.^' 
This answer is, according to Gerson, a sure sign that the 
tempted soul has not sinned mortally. ^^For there are 
souls/'' says he, ^^ who from pure pusillanimity think they 
despair, whilst in fact they do not. They take the feeling 
of despair, experienced in consequence of exaggerated fears, 
for consent.'^ This decision of a great spiritual guide is 
certainly very consoling. But, sorely tried soul, never for- 
get the most secure means of salvation for you. Make fre- 
quent acts of hope, and your enemies will soon be silenced, 
or, at least, rendered harmless. Do not be disturbed that 
you feel the contrary of what you express, that your acts 
of confidence seem to you useless, hypocritical formulas. 
Practise faithfully this pious exercise in S23ite of apparent 



Tempt a tions. 229 

opposition, and you will soon be cheered by wonderful 
results. 

FIFTH POINT. 
Passing Temptations. 

Temptations are very different in point of duration. 
Sometimes they come suddenly and pass as quickly; in 
which case it is often difl&cult to decide whether the 
thought or emotion was a temptation or a sin. The soul 
turned from it; but so rapid was the passage of the 
tempter that she hardly knows whether the temptation 
was rejected at the beginning or not. 

Under such circumstances, the usual dispositions of the 
soul, the ordinary course of action, must be the guiding 
test. When a soul faithfully and lovingly exercises the 
virtues opposed to the temptation; when she very rarely 
commits a deliberate fault against them; when she has 
voluntarily and courageously fought and conquered after a 
long endurance of temptation, — she may justly feel secure 
that those passing emotions were not sins, were indeed 
hardly temptations. 

This decision rests upon the following basis: For a soul- 
to act in opposition to good, settled principles, she must, in 
a manner, do violence to herself; and this cannot easily 
happen without her knowledge. Had, therefore, the soul 
habituated to good sentiments consented to temptation, 
she would undoubtedly know it; for even the passing 
impression would be suiHBciently strong to attract at least 
some attention. In such a case let not uncertainty with 
regard to consent disturb the peace of a soul. The doubt 
here is equivalent to certainty; for had one really con- 
sented, he could not doubt. 

All teachers of the interior life express themselves to the 
same effect on what concerns passing temptations. They 
tell us to despise them, to give them as little attention as 
possible; for experience teaches that they make no impres- 



230 Preserving Peace Amid Spirittial Weakness, 

sion upon the soul^ and that thay rarely return when jone 
leaves them unnoticed to occupy himself with other matters. 
To combat them violentl}"^ to pay too much attention to 
them by timorous examination of conscience^ and especially 
to fear them^ would be to call them back and strengthen 
them. Despise the temptation; and like a shadow or a 
flash of lightning it will vanish. If you pay it too much 
attention, the shadow will take form and shape; the light- 
ning will create fire, which your pondering will steadily in- 
crease. Let these little temptations pass unnoticed; never 
recall them, but turn your attention to some useful occu- 
pation. If at the first instant of attack you raise your 
heart to God by a pious aspiration, particularly by an act 
of love, you will suffer no detriment. 

SIXTH POINT. 

Lasting Temptations, and those that Powerfully Affect the 

Senses. 

All temptations are not passing. Many pursue the soul 
obstinately and violently; or if they grant a respite, it is 
for a time only. As they perplex both head aiid heart, 
anxious souls are easily led to believe that the oft-return- 
ing feeling must be shiful. But this idea and the uneasi- 
ness arising from it robbing the soul of the strength she 
needs, are much more dangerous than the temptation 
itself. 

In long-continued temptations we are better able to 
judge of our behavior during them, and conclude whether 
or not we have anything with which to reproach ourselves. 
Above all, one should not allow himself to be overcome by 
unnecessary fear. He must hold fast to the principle, that 
the feeling of temptation is not free-will, but only a bait 
with which the devil angles for consent. He places before 
the mind some object, some evil thought, and then instils 
into the heart the pleasurable sensation naturally resulting 
from it. This sensation is stronger or weaker according 



Temptations, 231 

to the temperament of the person^ and the greater or less 
impression made upon him. But its strength or weakness 
depends not upon our will; for both precede consent. 

That this consent should really follow, the will must 
freely embrace the feelings approve and entertain it. A 
thought can occupy the mind and emotion agitate the 
heart without the wilFs having the least share in it. A 
soul may suppress good as well as bad sentiments^ resist 
good as well as bad inspirations. Evil^ like good^ is not 
contained in first thoughts or sensations^ which only pre- 
sent good or evil to the will and incline it to the one or the 
other. The moral worth of our actions depends upon the 
free choice of the will, which decides for good or evil, one 
or other of which it embraces with full consent. 

If the soul has in the time of temptation earnestly im- 
plored God^s assistance; if she has rejected the rising evil 
emotions; if she is horrified at the snares of the Evil One; 
if she has endeavored to turn her thoughts from them, and 
occupied herself with other good and useful things — she 
may reasonably assume that what she felt, however pro- 
longed and violent, was only a temptation. She has not 
failed, although she may not be able to assert with perfect 
assurance that she was faithful during every single moment 
of the temptation. 

Should it appear to a soul that in her excitement she 
only for some moments weakly opposed the attack, she 
may still believe she has resisted, and that the weakness 
of which she complains is more apparent than real; she 
may believe the same if she did not entirely yield, and if 
in her ordinary frame of mind she hates and abhors sin. 
Such an appearance of defeat is often an effect of the vio- 
lence of temptation, which in a manner deprives our will 
of the knowledge that it has resisted. Even should this 
weakness be real, yet it would be hard for a pious soul to 
give that full consent which is necessary for mortal sin. 
In the latter case the soul must be fully conscious, and 
know for certain what she is about. God does not allow 



532 Preserving Peace Amid Spii^itual Weakness. 

us to be tempted above our strength. He never abandons 
a soul that does her best to avoid sin. Now^ when such a 
soul employs the means that religion and experience put 
into her hands^ it is a proof that .she is not guilty. She 
should hope that God^ conformably to His promise, has 
preserved her from falls. These princij)les should be forci- 
ble enough to put an end to vain fears. 

A temptation may be so violent as to exercise an impres- 
sion upon the senses, but this should in no wise afflict us. 
What we have said of feelings applies also to sensual im- 
pressions and sentiments. They do not depend upon our 
will, which can neither hinder them nor set them aside, 
and which is, consequently, guilty neither of their exist- 
ence nor their duration. Sensual impressions become sins 
only when entertained with pleasure. So long as they are 
considered a consequence of temptation, which we detest, 
and against which we make war, they cannot possibly give 
pleasure, they can cause no sin^ Too much attention only 
strengthens sensual impressions; violent efforts to be freed 
from them produce the same result. Such impressions are 
not sins. No notice should be taken of them. The soul 
should aim only at combating the temptation from which 
they proceed, and withholding the consent for which they 
clamor. 

SEVENTH POINT. 

On Temptations that Retard us in the Practice of Virtue. 

The foregoing principles impart courage and determina- 
tion to resist the temptations that not unfrequently seek 
to impede our practice of virtue. The enemy of salvation 
dares not openly propose to certain souls to give up the 
practice of virtue and perfection; but he makes use of an 
expedient to check their progress in the spiritual life, to 
keep them through negligence in the lower walks. In 
ordinary affairs he leaves them in peace; but as soon as 
they begin their spiritual exercises, he fills their mind with 
a thousand exciting and frightful fancies. 



Temptations. 2^ 

Does lie see them earnestly intent on leading a perfect 
life^ and that neither human respect nor the thought of the 
continual violence offered to self can intimidate them^ he 
adopts another course. He infuses secret vanity into the 
fulfilment of duty, he pursues them with these emotions 
until it appears that all they do is performed through self- 
complacency or the vain esteem of men. 

Certain souls are so susceptible of this temptation that 
they soon grow weary and disheartened. They say : ^^The 
violence I do myself is, for want of a good intention, use- 
less and worthless ;^^ and discouraged by this thought, they 
resist the inspirations of God, they neglect their spiritual 
exercises, they lead a life filled with faults and imperfec- 
tions. From the fear of temptation they omit the good* 
inspired by God, and thus, by endeavoring to avoid a little 
danger, they fall into a greater. St. Francis de Sales gives 
us an apt illustration when he says : " One must pay no 
regard to the suggestions of self-love. When in the course 
of the day we have two or three times renounced them, we 
have done enough. We must not banish them violently, 
but gently and quietly. We must say no, and then remain 
in peace. ^^ 

Are trifling or dangerous occupations, to which you de- 
vote yourself without a command from superiors, causes 
of temptation to you ? Then by all means avoid them, 
that you may not wantonly run into danger. But from 
the fulfilment of your duties, from faithfully following the 
divine inspiration, the fear of temptation should never, 
never withhold you. Temptation is not a sin ; but the 
non-fulfilment of duty and of what God expects is a sin. 
When you yield, to fear and temptation, when you allow 
yourself to be diverted from your path, when you neglect 
your devotional exercises and omit the good which you could 
do, then you are unfaithful to the Lord : you rob yourself 
of the means of advancing in perfection, and you put into 
the hand of the Evil One a sure weapon against yourself. 
By degrees it will come to this, that you will fulfil not even 



4- Preserving Peace Amid Spiritual Weakness, 

your essential duties. The devil will make use of his power 
over you and the fear that he instils^ to lead you to neglect 
your religious exercises^ particularly the holy Sacraments. 
But how can you^ in this weak and discouraged condition 
in which you do not venture to seek the true means — prayer 
and mortification^ — resist the temptations with which the 
devil may perhaps the next moment attack you ? 

Neither must you fear temptations that would hinder 
you in the execution of good works. They are not sinful 
so long as your will is not in them. Should they last long, 
the best arms against them are acts of love and confidence ; 
but if they are only passing, although very frequent, be 
not disturbed. Despise them, and drive them from your 
• thoughts. Eenew your intention of fulfilling the will of 
God in all things. If you do this, these temptations 
will not mingle the slightest imperfection in your good 
works : on the contrary, they will enrich them with greater 
merit by reason of their reminding you frequently to renew 
your good intention. Thus one turns evil to good, and 
the wiles prepared to ensure his condemnation serve to 
further his sanctification. 

EIGHTH POINT. 

One should not Parley with the Tempter. Means by which we 
may Turn from the Temptation. 

There are passions which one will never master if he 
does not openly and vigorously declare war against them 
by doing just the contrary to what they suggest. To this 
belong all passions that spring from character, as long as 
they have not been ennobled by grace. Is one subject to 
vanity, to anger, to susceptibility, or to that folly which is 
called antipathy ? He will overcome such emotions only 
by making use of every occasion to practise the contrary 
virtue. For one must not only suppress passion in its first 
attacks, but determine to mortify it till deatli. Should 
he be satisfied with avoiding only certain occasions^ he 



Temptations. 235 

would never succeed in uprooting the evil, and he will 
generally be overcome. Only by acts of humility^ meek- 
ness, and self-conquest ; only by the most polite, preventing, 
and amiable deportment toward those for whom we have 
an aversion, — can we with God^s grace free ourselves from 
this passion. 

All temptations whose source is in the passions enumer- 
ated above, should be often and freely combated. We must 
embrace every opportunity formally to oppose them, by 
courageously exercising the opposite virtue. The same 
mode of proceeding is not necessary with other tempta- 
tions ; and in this some souls greatly deceive themselves. 
Many, for instance, suppose that during the temptation 
they must think of and search out arguments for refuting 
the insinuations of the devil ; and they would consider 
themselves as having failed if they had not acted thus. 
They allow themselves to analyze the passion that attacks 
them; and to justify such a proceeding, pretexts and 
excuses are never wanting. They thus become involved 
in a long and dangerous contest. Had they not entered 
into parley with their cunning enemy, they might perhaps 
have been freed in a moment. But instead of that, 
their want of promptitude causes them to endure pain and 
disquiet. It is particularly in temptations against faith, 
hope, and charity that such souls act in this manner. 
They wish to convince themselves of the strength of their 
virtue by opposing temptations with protestations and 
arguments to the contrary. This, however, not only gives 
rise to anxiety and trouble, but is also extremely danger- 
ous ; for one runs a great risk of succumbing, as soon as 
he begins to examine the temptation and enter into con- 
troversy with the tempter. 

Temptation that enters the soul through the senses and 
holds up the prospect of sensual gratification, makes a 
strong impression. But the efforts by which we interiorly 
oppose it do not fall under the senses, do no harm to 
nature^ and make far l^ss impression, Ir this, faith can 



236 Preserving Peace Amid Spirihcal Weakness. 

come to our aid ; but if the soul is disquieted, faith has 
often little power to make itself felt, and but slight resist- 
ance is offered to the passion. To oppose it in such a way 
is to pay it too much attention, to keep it alive, and to pro- 
voke it to new attacks. Every movement under such cir- 
cumstances brings with it the dread of yielding. By all this 
the soul is at last so bewildered that she can with difficulty 
view the matter clearly in her examination of conscience. 

For such temptations there is no better remedy than 
fidelity to turn the mind from the evil and arouse pious 
sentiments in the heart. For although our thoughts are 
not all subject to our will, yet the will can force the 
mind to busy itself with other things calculated to divert 
attention from the temptation. For this purpose one need 
not make choice of the virtue directly opposed to the one 
attacked; for the evil is sufficiently disavowed by every 
pious emotion, every good thought, every act of virtue. 
Every soul must on such occasions do what she knows from 
experience to be the most useful. One has a particular 
devotion to the sufferings of Christ ; the thought of them 
infuses into his heart a horror of evil. Another throws 
himself in spirit upon the Sacred Heart of Jesr.s, and im- 
plores His help and mercy. Others, again, to fly from sin, 
feel themselves especially drawn to venerate the Blessed 
Sacrament of the Altar. Another places himself in spirit 
before the judgment-seat of Jesus Christ, in order to 
awaken in himself a wholesome fear of the Evil One. Thus 
every one has some favorite truth of faith, which attracts 
him in a special manner and diverts his mind from present 
temptation. Acts of love toward Jesus, invocation of the 
Blessed Virgin, are under all circumstances an unfailing 
resource. Sometimes, however, indifferent matters, busi- 
ness affairs, a scientific question, a book lying at hand, are 
a still better means to divert the mind. Whatever may be 
of most use to us under the circumstances, that is the 
proper means. The only question is, How can we most 
effectually banish dangerous thoughts and sentiments ? 



Temptations. 237 

The important point in the combat is to remain tranquil, 
to persevere with unshaken confidence in God^ and at once 
to resist courageously the fierce attack of Satan. When 
the heart and the head are trembling with fear they know 
not on what to depend. Agitation never leads to a correct 
judgment of things. Daily experience shows the evil con- 
sequences of anxiety in spiritual, as well as in temporal mat- 
ters. What does a man do when in a sudden danger^ an 
unforeseen attack, he loses his presence of mind? He is 
blind to the help offered him ; his Aveapons lie near him 
Avhilst he is seeking them in vain. 

Eeceive the enemy with more confidence, look him boldly 
in the face, and you will meet on more equal terms. You 
will more quickly perceive- the means of victory, you will 
grasp them more vigorously, and use them Avith greater 
success. And after all^ why should you fear ? The devil 
may, indeed, insinuate into your mind alkthat there is most 
hideous, but your consent he can never force. That de- 
pends solely on yourself, and not on him. Why, then, are 
you frightened by that over which you are sovereign ruler, 
and to which, with the divine assistance, you may always 
deny consent? Be firm. You have nothing to fear from 
an adversary who can conquer you only when you will it 
yourself. A discouraged soul is half overcome, for to her 
are wanting those special graces that God grants only to 
confidence. And how can they be given her since in her 
discouragement she does not even think of asking for them? 
Say not : ^^ I have already experienced so often how weak I 
am in this or that temptation. ^^ You have been weak be- 
cause you were wanting in confidence. For the future, act 
courageously, call upon God, and you will not be overcome. 

Besides confidence in God, there is still a third point — par- 
ticularly important in violent temptations ; namely, you 
must carefully notice the first awaking of the passion, so as 
to stifle it at once. If by offering only slight resistance you 
permit the enemy to heat your imagination and fill your 
heart with evil, this first infidelity will weaken your souFs 



238 Pi^eserving Peace Amid spiritual Weakness. 

vigoi% and the passion tlins indulged will soon gain the 
upper hand. Prompt and energetic resistance on the first 
attack is doubly necessary in those temptations whose yio- 
lence is strengthened by sensual impressions. If you allow 
such impressions to possess you^ you will require a very 
special protection from above to preserve yourself from sin. 
When one is inexperienced in spiritual matters he should 
in the very beginning expose his temptations to his confes- 
sor. He learns thus how" to combat them^ and how to help 
himself in the struggle. This act of Christian humility 
and simplicity draws very special graces upon the soul. A 
person following the call of the Lord^ walking in the path 
of obedience^ merits that God should take particular care 
of him in his sufferings." It frequently happens^ also^, that 
temptations cease as soon as they are divulged to the repre- 
sentative of God. But if, on the contrary^ they are con- 
cealed in the hope that they wdll pass^ time is given them to 
increase in violence^ and they will be more difficult to over- 
come. 

ISTINTH POINT. 

How Temptations proceeding from the Imagination are to be 

Combated. 

The most troublesome and sometimes the most danger- 
ous temptations come from the force of the imagination. 
Fickle, nervous, and impressionable persons are particu- 
larly beset by them. On the melancholy, likewise, they 
exercise a tyrannical influence. With the first, they bear 
the character of change and inconsistency, which render 
serious reflection very difficult. A thousand thoughts flit 
through the mind, each producing its own strong, though 
fleeting, impression, and allowing no room for the cool, 
tranquil suggestions of reason. On the contrary, with the 
sad and the melancholy the imagination assumes a firm, 
reflective character. It sees everything in the darkest 
light, and is depressed by the thought of difficulty. Trifles 



Temptations, 239 

that often have no foundation will make such persons think 
themselves the most unhappy beings in the world. They 
curse their existence^ and sigh for death as the only remedy 
for the imaginary evil. Imagination is for all men a mag- 
nifying-glass^ which enlarges a thousand and a thousand 
times the smallest occurrences of daily life and the trials 
and sufferings so dreaded by the soul. If it meddles with 
matters of conscience^ it becomes an inexhaustible source 
of scruples^ and with melancholy persons even a constant 
tendency to despair. If a soul accustoms herself to indulge 
the fancies of the mind^ these fancies become fixed ideas, 
irrefutable convictions emancipated from the dominion of 
the will. Frequently these thoughts imperceptibly engross 
the mind for hours, producing, so to say, a species of in- 
sanity upon some points. St. Teresa, therefore, not inap- 
propriately styles imagination ^'^The fool of the house. ^^ 
If the evil is already thus far advanced, something must be 
said that will enable the soul to form a correct judgment of 
her state. The existence of such fixed ideas as, for ex- 
ample, a secret proneness to despair, some strong prejudice 
in our communication with others, does not render the 
soul guilty, so long as she cannot free herself from them. 
She should assuredly offer resistance, and it is extremely 
important for her to have a correct idea as to how she 
should resist, and what she may gain over herself by such 
resistance ; otherwise, she would by ill-directed exertions 
increase the evil instead of diminishing it. 

The imagination is an enemy not to be openly defied. 
Not violent efforts, not prolonged disputes with their end- 
less subtleties, can conquer it ; for it has most frequently the 
devil for accomplice, and he is one with whom argument is 
not to be held. The safest means to fight against a lively 
imagination may be summed up in these four words : an- 
ticipate^ despise, l)ear patiently, divert the mind, 

1. ANTICIPATE. — Here, above all, the maxim applies, 
^^Nip in the bud V^ Do you perceive that one or other of 
your stereotyped fancies is rising to excite you? Close in- 



240 Preserving Peace Amid Spiritual Weakness. 

stantly the doors of your hearty give it no entrance. This 
you will be able to_ do when you faithfully and conscien- 
tiously banish the unbidden thoughts that solicit your at- 
tention. Eaise your heart to God ; offer the dangerous 
gratification to Him as a sacrifice ; deny yourself every 
deliberate reflection, every wijful return of thought in that 
direction ; occupy your mind with something useful, agree- 
able, and edifying, that the excited imagination may be 
diverted. Instead of this, what is your general custom? 
You open windows and portals with pleasure to the temp- 
tation. You welcome it. It is agreeable to your inclina- 
tions, because it finds in your own soul a sympathetic chord. 
In the twinkling of an eye you have made with it a tour 
round the world, and in spirit A^a-itten a romance that 
twenty volumes would not contain^ By the disquiet and 
excitement, the painful feelings now experienced as the 
natural result of what has preceded, 3^ou will recognize, 
though late, what a dangerous enemy you have admitted 
within your walls. You would now like to expel him, but 
it is too late. The dam is broken, the stream rushes with 
full force, the overflow will cease only when the water has 
run off. Or, to speak less figuratively, your excitable 
imagination has broken loose from the restraint of the will ; 
and its frenzy will cease only when weariness or some chance 
accident steps in, so to say, to interrupt it. Nothing, then, 
remains for you but to be patient, and guard against your 
wilFs taking any part in what it cannot prevent. How this 
may be done, I shall now explain to you. 

II. Despise the TEMPTATio:Nr, be Patient, Divert 
YOUR Attention. — Is the imagination over-excited? Then, 
as has been said, it is no longer possible, by open resistance 
to master its fantastical images and representations, or the 
impressions they produce. Only by despising them, by 
enduring them with patience and a certain indifference, 
can you resist the current, presupposing, of course, that 
your free-will does not become an actor in the scene, does 
not give consent to the ridiculous, if not sinful, thoughts 



Temptations, 241 

that fill the mind. Yes^ in spite of the various^ extrava- 
gant fancies of the imagination; in spite of sinful senti- 
ments and impressions, which are the natural consequence 
of such fancies, if your will still remains subject to you, 
such interior disturbances amount to nothing. The strug- 
gle has its diflficulties, which are all the greater in propor- 
tion as you have allowed yourself to be frequently mas- 
tered, and thereby strengthened the power of the Evil One. 
But by the aid of grace, which will never be wanting, you 
can and should keep your will free from the bustle and 
excitement going on in your interior. Do nothing but rise 
above your disordered imagination, remain passive, ignore 
the storm, wait patiently till its fury is spent. You must 
act as one attacked by a violent headache or fever. He 
gives such ills no nourishment, he guards against strength- 
ening them by indulging in what has produced them; but 
he knows also, it would be useless to oppose them violently 
or to protest against them. Have you a stone in your 
hand, and do you wish to be relieved of it? Do not resort 
to any extraordinary effort. Merely open your hand, and 
the stone will fall of its own weight. 

The frightful pictures which the imagination sometimes 
places before us, are in reality of no account. They gain 
no ascendancy over a firm, determined will that passes 
them by unnoticed. On the contrary, excessive fear de- 
prives the soul of presence of mind and power of defence. 
The timid warrior, like the turkey in the fable^ loses his 
head in the contest and falls into the snares of the enemy. 
The deceitful pictures of the imagination are like the 
shows of strolling players. They exhibit their wonders to 
their gaping spectators; and the more attention they re- 
ceive, the more they exert themselves. But when that is 
withheld they put up their chattels, and move off. Notice 
and indignant replies exasperate an abusive scoundrel, 
whereas the opposite course reduces him to silence. If 
you have been accustomed to attend to the delusions of 
your fancy, so that they have grown into fixed and incon- 
16 



242 Preserving Peace Amid Spiritttal Weakness. 

testible prejudices^ then to treat them with patience and 
contempt will be more difficulty but none the less neces- 
sary. Here^ as in all other cases, it is still true that free- 
will can deny consent. It is as if you were in the presence 
of an immoral picture and your eyes forcibly opened upon 
it. You would be compelled to behold what could only 
fill you with disgust. Would you sin by this unwilling 
glance as by a deliberate one ? Certainly not. It is pre- 
cisely the same with the imagination. 

Another illustration will, perhaps, show more clearly that 
contempt, patience, and diversion of mind, serve as excel- 
lent means in this struggle. Picture to yourself a madman 
crying: " Fire ! Thieves !^^ Terror seizes the whole family. 
All rush to extinguish the flames, to expel the thieves, when 
some cool-headed person quietly says: ^^0 it is only the 
fool screaming V^ Instantly the excitement subsides. The 
terrifying scream may, perhaps, have produced in some 
one a violent headache, but he pays no heed to it. He 
laughs and goes about his ordinary affairs, if not without 
indignation, yet without alarm. This is a true picture of 
what takes place in many souls tormented by the insane 
fancies of their imagination. Never forget that the im- 
agination is the fool of the house. It is not the soul, the 
free, rational soul whose actions alone concern the con- 
science. You will be frequently obliged to listen to the 
noise and shouts by which the fool tries to mislead you. 
But you heed not take part with him, you need not scream 
with him, much less shape your actions by his dictum, nor 
silence him by long arguments. Say to yourself: ^^No. 
Although forced to listen, I shall give no heed to the fool 
and his ravings. To silence him is not in my power. I 
shall not even attempt it. Patience, then ! When he is 
wearied, I shall have rest. In the meantime, I shall at- 
tend to my duty as well as possible. It will serve as a 
salutary distraction, and I shall be better able to endure 
the tiresome struggle. ^^ Behold the manner of comporting 
oneself in a situation certainly far from pleasant. 



Temptations. 243 



TENTH POINT. 

Of Frequently Recurring Temptations. In Time of Peace 
Prepare for War. 

When a soul is exposed to frequent temptations^ she 
must in time of peace prepare for the attack and gather 
strength for resistance. He who awaits the moment of 
assault to arm himself^ will be surprised and conquered. 
In time of peace prepare for war. This well-known maxim 
must also be observed in the spiritual life — the more so, as 
here every defeat entails incalculable loss, since it robs us 
of an eternal kingdom. 

Preparation for temptation consists in a truly recollected 
interior life. A dissipated soul pays no great attention to 
what passes in her interior, and a temptation may have 
made great progress before she is able to offer any resist- 
ance. A soul that occupies herself with frivolous things 
will find it difficult to consider the great truths of religion, 
which alone can hold the balance against the violence of 
passion. On the contrary, one that carefully preserves in- 
terior recollection by occupying herself with God and holy 
thoughts, sees the enemy^s approach from afar. She 
hastens to guard against him, and soon comes off victori- 
ous. A mind accustomed to revolve the great truths of 
our holy religion and a heart to which virtue has become 
sweet, will rarely be carried away bj^ the deceitful bait held 
out by passion. The persevering exercise of prayer, the 
protection of the saints, and particularly of the dear 
Mother of God, who is to be invoked in every danger, open 
the treasures of heaven and obtain those special graces of 
which a dissipated soul is unworthy, and for which she 
does not even ask. 

If to an interior, recollected life is added the frequent 
reception of the Holy Sacraments, then is one doubly 
secure. Although sometimes overcome by temptations, 
one should not for that reason turn away from those holy 



244 Preserving Peace Amid Spwittcal Weakness. 

means of grace, but rather receive them still more fre- 
quently. The Holy Sacrament of Penance was instituted 
not only for the remission of actual sins^ but to impart 
special grace for avoiding possible ones,, and to strengthen 
the soul against her passions^ the cause of her former falls. 
To live apart from the Holy Sacraments^, is to rob the soul 
of grace. The of tener one approaches the Holy Sacrament 
of Penance^ the greater horror will he have for sin. All 
learned theologians agree in saying that a Christian who 
has had the misfortune to commit mortal sin should not 
delay to extricate himself from his sad condition. And 
this so much the more if he experiences within himself a 
strong inclination to that particular sin; for once separated 
from God^ he is exposed to imminent danger upon the re- 
turn of the temptation^ and he will surely relapse into his 
sins. The greatest injury he can inflict on his soul^ is to 
withdraw from the Holy Sacrament of Penance. 

Holy Communion^ when received with due preparation 
and proper dispositions^ is a powerful safeguard against 
temptation. Here is received Jesus Christ Himself^ the 
Saviour of our soul. He gives Himself entirely to us. 
How, then, can He refuse grace necessary for fidelity to 
Him? The Council of Trent says of the Divine Eucharist: 
^'^ Jesus Christ left us this Divine Sacrament as a spiritual 
nourishment for the preservation and strengthening of the 
life of grace in us^ and as a protecting means that purifies 
us from daily faults and preserves us from mortal sin.^^ 
Session XIII., chap. 2. But Avlien does the soul most 
urgently require a special grace that confirms her in good, 
strengthens her against the enemies of salvation, and pre- 
serves her from mortal sin? Assuredly, in the time of 
temptation. In the days of trial this Heavenly Food of 
the soul^ this powerful means of protection, is more neces- 
sary than ever. Voluntarily to deprive one^s self would be 
to yield to one^s weakness. Again, a soul that worthily 
receives the Holy Sacraments, occupies herself with the 
sentiments she should carry to the Lord's Table, She 



Temptations, 245 

ignores the temptations that pursue her, and feels strongly 
impelled to keep aloof from all that could place an obstacle 
to divine grace. 

A further preservative against temptation is the practice 
of penance. Penance obtains many graces, humbles the 
understanding, weakens the passions, satisfies for sins and 
imperfections, renews holy fervor, and arouses vigilance. 
It should not, however, be used immoderately. Every 
Christian should do penance, should mortify himself, but 
only to a certain limit. Whatever exceeds this, is excessive; 
and again. Christian prudence commands us to take care 
of our health. Penance is for most people a sure remedy 
against evil inclinations ; yet there are some to whom, on 
account of a certain peculiarity of character or temperament, 
it may become extremely hurtful. Such persons should 
never undertake anything of the kind without counsel and 
permission. 

ELEVENTH POINT. 
Of the Advantages of Temptation. 

Many grieve over temptations, because they do not view 
them in the true light. They look only on their danger 
and the evil to which they incite, forgetting the advantages 
they procure and the spiritual benefits that may be gained 
by them. Many, either because they do not know their 
worth, or do not reflect upon it, draw little or no benefit 
from their temptations. May the following instructions 
help all such souls to endure more patiently and overcome 
more easily ! ' 

In temptation a Christian soul can practice the solid vir- 
tues and accumulate great merit for heaven. AVhat a con- 
solation for us that even the snares of our enemy may 
procure us the greatest advantages for eternity ; and that 
the evil spirits, if we but will it, may promote our hap- 
piness and salvation ! How greatly does this thought 
strengthen and encourage us in the combat ! Listen to 



246 Preservmg Peace Amid Spzrzhial Weakness. 

the words of St. James: '^^My brethren^ count it all joy 
when you shall fall into divers temptations. Knowing that 
the trying of your faith worketh patience. And patience 
hath a perfect work ; that you may be perfect and entire^ 
failing in nothing. '^ ^ 

Generally^ man reflects but little upon self^, knows him- 
self but im-perfectly^ and dives reluctantly into his own 
hearty because he fears the discovery of faults that would 
cause his self-love to blush. His whole aim is to extenuate 
his shortcomings and to rejoice in his own good qualities. 
From this foolish inclination originate the sensitiveness and 
irritability of his self-love^ the vain self-esteem that exposes 
him to so many dangers^ and the self-complacency that 
makes him prefer himself to others. Pride^ the main- 
spring of all his evils, bliuds him to his faults. Even pious 
souls are not always free from self-seeking. Glancing upon 
their virtues, they fancy themselves to be something, they 
strive to have their good qualities recognized; even their 
holiest actions are infected by this secret passion. 

The infallible remedy for this dangerous evil and its bad 
consequences is temptation. Temptations reveal to man 
his whole heart. They show it to him as it is. When left 
to himself, he can no longer conceal himself from himself, 
or palliate his defects. Temptation is the light by whose 
dull gleam he sees the full extent of his weakness, his mis- 
ery, and his perversity. iVnger, envy, jealousy, hatred, 
revenge, and the still lower and more humiliating passions 
attack him one after the other; and thus assaulted, he 
arrives at the conviction that by nature he is not superior 
to others. 

The first fruit of self-knowledge in a Christian soul is 
humility, such humility as stands in correct relation with 
her misery. The soul finds in herself subjects for humilia- 
tion only. She may notice some good qualities ; but the 
tribute of praise that they might exact soon dwindles before 
the numerous evil inclinations with which she has constant- 

1 St. Jarne:^ i. e. 



Temptations. 247 

ly to contend. She is, in her own eyes, what she would 
be before men, were her heart with all its passions unveiled 
to them. She feels no other sentiment for herself than 
contempt ; therefore she constantly humbles herself before 
God and exacts nothing from men. We know what ster- 
ling advantages self-knowledge animated by a religious 
spirit brings with it. 

A soul to whom the whole misery of her heart has be- 
come clear stands confused before God ; and such confusion 
is most beneficial to her, since by it she is preserved from 
vain self-esteem. 

The knowledge of our ow^n perversity as imparted to us 
by temptation has still another result, which may very 
much contribute to our perfection. A soul that, in spite 
of her temptations, would still work out her salvation, must 
unite herself more closely to God and be more watchful 
over herself. Close adherence to God and watchfulness 
over self are tw^o excellent means to make rapid progress 
in the way of holiness. Such a soul, as soon as the enemy 
begins to stir, raises her eyes to the holy mountain whence 
Cometh help. The more he molests her, the more closely 
she clings to God in prayer, as a child in the midst of 
danger holds on more and more tenaciously to its father^s 
hand. She is watchful to guard against the danger in ad- 
vance, and she avoids everything that could in the least 
excite former temptations or give rise to new ones. He 
that has learned from daily combating, that his wicked in- 
clinations must be subdued at their birth, will detect the 
evil emotions of his heart at once, and will never be taken 
unawares. 

TWELFTH POINT. 

Devotion to the Ever-Blessed Virgin Mary is an Excellent 
Remedy Against Temptations and a Means of Preserving 
Interior Peace. 

We do not undertake to speak liere in detail of the good- 
ness and power of the ever-Blessed Virgin and of devotion 



248 Preserving Peace Amid spiritual Weakness. 

to her. The whole volume would not suffice for that. We 
wish only to remind souls in a few words how powerful is 
Mary^s assistance for the preservation of interior peace. 
Among the honorable titles conferred by Holy Church on 
the Mother of the Kedeemer, we find that of Queen of Peace 
— Regina Pads, How aptly does not this apply to her ! 
She is^ indeed^ the mother of the true Solomon^ the King 
of Peace. According to the expression of the Holy Fathers^ 
she is prefigured by that sign of peace given by God after 
the Deluge ; viz. , the rainbow. 

Mary is the dispensatrix of all divine gifts. In her hands, 
therefore, lies that most precious of all goods, interior peace 
that surpasses all understanding. To her we must turn for 
this, as well as for all other gifts. St. Bonaventure says : 
^^Our eyes should ever be raised to Mary^s hands, to receive 
good things from her.'^ Prom whom shall the child seek 
rest and help if net from its own dear mother, who so faith- 
fully and solicitously Avatches over its happiness ? Mary is 
our Mother by her love, and by the last testament of her 
Divine Son who, on the cross, gave her to us as a Mother. 
The bonds that unite us to her are stronger and holier than 
the ties of nature. The blessed servant of God, Father 
Nieremberg, assures us that the united love of all mothers 
for their children, is only a shadow compared with that of 
Mary for each one of hers. Mary loves us more than all 
the angels and saints together. She proved this when, for 
our salvation, she consented to the shedding of the blood 
of her Divine Son. St. Bonaventure applies to her these 
words which St. John wrote of God the Father : ''For God 
so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son.^" 
What could she deny us after such an oflEering? And how 
could we on our p^rt place limits to our love and confidence 
in her? ''They can never be lost/^ says Blosius, "who 
humbly and ardently persevere in devotion to Mary.^^ 

St. Bonaventure says that not without reason does Holy 
Church call Mary our hope: "Although He should kill me, 
I will trust in Him.^^^ God so created Mary that no one 

1 John iii. 16. 2 JqI^ xiii. 15. 



Temptations, 2 49 

can fear her. ]S[ot justice^ but mercy alone belongs to her. 
The Lord has endowed her with goodness and compassion 
so great that she can despise no one fleeing to her for help; 
she can deny assistance to no one pleading for it. God 
gave us Mary for a support in our weakness^ a consolation 
in our sufferings^ a help in our dangers, and a refuge in our 
sinfulness. Even crime cannot prevent our having recourse 
to this Mother so full of tenderness. AVhen in danger of 
losing peace, let us flee at once to Mary. It is, however, in 
the hour of temptation that we must take refuge near our 
powerful, our good Mother. The mere invocation of her 
holy name, strengthens us against the attacks of the tempter. 
" Glorious and wonderful is thy name, Mary V^ cries out 
St. Bonaventure. ^^He that invokes it with confidence, 
has nothing to fear at the hour of death ; for the devils can 
not hear it without fleeing from the soul that invokes it.^^ 

^^ Therefore, '^ says St. Thomas of Yillanova, ^^As little 
chickens at the sight of the hawk fly under the protecting 
wing of the hen, so should we flee to the protection of 
Mary^s mantle as soon as the tempter attacks us.^^ Mary 
herself once said to St. Bridget: ^'^If even my sinful chil- 
dren flee to me for protection, I feel impelled to save them, 
like a mother at the sight of a sword raised above the head 
of her son.'^ 

We shall, then, always be victorous in our combats against 
sin, if we have recourse to Mary. Galling upon her holy 
name during temptation, is the best evidence that we have 
courageously opposed the enemy ; and this is particularly 
the case in temptations against holy purity. Her name is, 
indeed, the buckler of perfect j)urity. The names of Jesus 
and Mary should be inseparable in our heart ; in temptation 
they should constitute our firm support. To these holy 
names is associated a third, inseparable from them in our 
prayers upon earth as it is in heaven. It is the name of 
Joseph, the virgin spouse of Mary, the foster-father and 
protector of Jesus, of whom St. Teresa says : ^^ In all things, 
I choose him for my protector. I never remember having 
usked anything of God through his intercession without 



250 Presei'ving Peace Amid Spiritual Weakness. 

having been favorably heard. Never have I known any one 
who invoked him without making signal progress in perfec- 
tion. His power with God is of wonderful efficacy for all 
that turn to him with confidence. ^^ The people of Egypt, 
pressed by famine^, begged their king to aid them. They 
received for rej)ly the words: '^Go to Joseph, and do all 
that he shall tell you. '" And, in like manner, Jesus Christ, 
our Divine King, sends tried souls in their disquiet, tempta- 
tions, and sufferings to His foster-father, to him who pro- 
tected His childhood, who guided Him in all things, and 
to whom He confided the management of His household. 
Yes, to us He says: ^^Go to Joseph, and do all that he shall 
say to you/^ 

THIRTEEI^TH POINT. 
Means Against Sadness. 

Here are two rules that seem to be of the utmost import- 
ance here. The first is that you make use of the natural 
means offered you by Providence, in order to shake off sad- 
ness. Do nob overburden yourself with laborious occupa- 
tions, spare your corporal and spiritual strength ; reserve 
for yourself some leisure hours in which to pray, to read, 
and to enjoy good conversation. Cheer your soul with 
thoughts of eternal happiness, and shake off depression by 
spiritual and physical diversion taken in the Lord. 

Seek also a discreet and trusty friend to whom you can 
pour out your heart. To such a one disclose everything 
that is not the secret of another. Perfect confidence enlarges 
and enlightens the mind. A sorrow long concealed oppresses 
the heart. Speak out, and you will discover that you have 
made the matter over which you are grieving much more 
serious than it really is. Nothing so quickly dispels gloom 
as the simplicity and humility with which, at the sacrifice of 
self-esteem you reveal discouragement and dejection, and seek 
light and consolation in the holy communication that ought 
to exist between the children of God. Confine yourself to 



Tempt a Hons. 251 

those of your acquaintances whoso conversation is cheerful 
and recreative. It is not necess^j^ry that your circle should be 
large, nor must you be too fastidious. Be ready to converse 
with all peaceable and reasonable people. Again, whenever 
you feel sadness creeping over you, read, work, or take a walk. 
Change occupation, that weariness may not attack you. In 
short, do whatever your frame of mind may suggest, provided 
there is nothing sinful in it. If you feel that, in spite of these 
helps and rules, sadness still asserts its reign, then follow 
the second rule: Endure patiently. Interior desolation 
carries the soul more speedily forward on the way of pure 
faith than all exterior exercises could do. But do not let 
yourself be held back by it. Do not indulge in relaxation 
which will aim at usurping possession of your interior. One 
step when in this state is always a giant stride, and is of 
more value than thousands when the soul is in consolation. 
Despise your dejection and go on quietly, for this state of 
soul is more useful, more meritorious to you than gigantic, 
heroic strength and courage. 

how deceitful is that sensible courage that finds 
everything easy, undertakes all, suffers everything, and un- 
hesitatingly attributes all to self ! Ah, it nourishes self- 
esteem and confidence ! It pleases the world ; but to the 
soul it is a refined poison. 

A soul that, like Christ in the Garden of Olives, is 
sorrowful unto death, and with her crucified Lord, cries 
out : " My God ! my God I why hast Thou forsaken me?^' ' 
is much more purified, much better fortified in humility 
than the valiant one who rejoices in peace over the fruits of 
her virtues. 

1 Mark xv. 34, 



CHAPTER V. 
On Prayer. 

FIRST POINT. 1 
For What we should Pray.— We Must Persevere in Prayer. 




T is strange that the generality of Christians com- 
plain daily that their prayers are not heard ^ al- 
though Christ has so often and so solemnly prom- 
ised to grant the fulfilment of all our petitions. We cannot 
ascribe this result to the nature of the thing for which we 
pray, since in His promise Jesus excepts nothing: '^^There- 
fore, I say unto you, all things whatsoever you ask when you 
pray, believe that you shall receive, and they shall come unto 
you.^^^ Nor can we attribute it to the un worthiness of the 
petitioner, for Christ gave His word to all without exception: 
" For every one that asketh receiveth.^^ ^ Whence comes it 
then that so many prayers remain unheard ? Perhaps, be- 
cause the greater part of men are so immoderate, and im- 
petuous in their demands. They seem to aim at forcing the 
Lord to yield to their wishes. Do their rudeness and im- 
petuosity render them troublesome? No, nothing of all 
this ; and I am convinced that one reason why we receive 
so little from God is, that we desire so little, importune so 
little. 

Jesus Christ, on the part of His Heavenly Father, has 
made us the promise to give us all things ; consequently, 
the greatest as well as the least. But He has also prescribed 
the order we should observe in our petitions ; so that if we 
do not folloAV His directions, we may hope in vain to receive. 

^ This point is taken from Father de la Colombiere. 
2 iVIark xi. 24. 3 xMatt. vii. 8. 

253 



Prayer. 253 

He expressly tells us : " Seek first the kingdom of God and 
His justice, then shall all else be added thereto/^ We are 
not forbidden to wish for riches and whatever else apper- 
tains to the maintenance and enjoyment of life ; but they 
must be desired in their order only. If desirous of having 
our wishes fulfilled, we must seek first the absolutely neces- 
sary, and to them shall be added the less important. 

Holy Scripture furnishes us an example of this in Solo- 
mon, the Wise Man. When God left him at full liberty to 
ask whatever he wished, the pious king craved only wisdom 
wherewith worthily to fulfil his regal duties. He chose 
neither treasures, nor earthly glory. He aimed only at em- 
bracing so favorable an occasion to obtain true and lasting 
goods. By this wise procedure he received not only what 
he had asked, but even more than he had desired. ^^ Be- 
cause thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for 
thyself long life nor riches^ nor the lives of thy enemies, 
but hast asked for thyself wisdom to discern judgment. 
Behold, I have done for thee according to thy words, and 
have given thee a wise and understanding heart. Yea, and 
the things also which thou didst not ask : to wit, riches and 
glory.'' ^ 

Since God acts thus, we need no longer wonder that we 
have hitherto prayed without effect. I must say that I have 
often been moved with compassion at beholding the fervor 
of certain persons who have had novenas offered, who have 
given alms, made vows, performed fasts and pilgrimages in 
order to succeed in earthly undertakings. ^^ Blind men V\ 
I exclaimed to myself, " how much I fear that you pray to no 
purpose ! These voavs and sacrifices should have been 
brought to the Lord to obtain perfect conversion, patience, 
contempt of the world, detachment from creatures. After 
taking this first important step, you could have begged for 
health and temporal blessings, and God would have granted 
all your desires over and above.'' 

When the most important petitions are not made first, 

1 III. Kings iii. 11, 12, 13. 



254 Preservmg Peace Amid Spiritual Weakness. 

God often denies the temporal ; since without the spiritual, 
they Avould prove not only prejudicial but even injurious. 
We murmur and complain that God is cruel and unfaithful 
to His promises. But let us remember that our God is. a 
good Father, who would rather endure our complaints and 
murmurs than quiet and console us with pernicious gifts. 

What has been said of prayer in regard to temporal 
things, applies also to prayer for the averting of temporal 
evils. For example, some one says to me: *^I do not long 
for riches. I should be content, if I were only freed from 
my vexatious embarrassments. Gladly would I leave fame 
and celebrity to those that desire them, could I only avoid 
the shame which an enemy^s calumny is preparing for me. 
Freely do I resign pleasure and enjoyment ; but the pains 
from which I suffer, I can no longer endure. I have already 
prayed so long and implored the Lord to smooth matters 
for me, but He remains inexorable, ^^ etc., etc. I reply that 
I am not surprised that God is deaf to your petitions. 
You suffer from interior ills which are much greater than 
the exterior ones of which you complain. Why do you not 
rather pray to be freed from the former ? Had you pra}^ed 
with this intention only half so much as you did to be 
delivered from temporal sufferings? God had long since set 
you free from both. Your poverty serves to humble your 
naturally proud spirit ; the calumnies, which trouble you 
so much, are necessary for you, because you cling so tena- 
ciously to the world ; that illness is a check upon your im- 
petuous seeking after pleasure. God would give you a 
proof not of love but aversion, if He removed this cross 
before you are in possession of the virtues necessary for 
you. Did God perceive in you an ardent longing for these 
virtues. He would give them to you, and you would have no 
need to ask for other things. You perceive, therefore, that 
we receive nothing, because we ask for so little. God can- 
not circumscribe His infinite munificence without injury to 
us. But observe,. I do not say that it is not permitted you 
to pray to God for temporal things. The prayer for tern- 



Prayer. 255 

poral blessings is sufficiently purified when tlie condition is 
added : ^''In so far as it is not contrary to Tliy honor and 
my salvation V^ But as it seldom redounds to God^s greater 
glory or furthers the souFs salvation to be heard in such 
petitions^ I repeat that you run the risk of receiving noth- 
ing so long as you do not ask for the higher gifts. 

Shall I tell you how to pray for temporal happiness and 
in such a manner as to force God to hear you ? Say to Him 
once for all and with your whole heart: ^'^O my God! 
either give me wealth sufficient for my desires^ or else in- 
fuse into my heart such contempt for riches that I may no 
longer desire them ! Either free me from poverty^ or make 
it so lovable that I shall prefer it to all the treasures of the 
world. Either put an end to my sufferings^ or grant that 
they may become to me a source of pleasure and content- 
ment. 

'^^Thou canst take from me this cross^ or Thou canst 
make it light and sweet. Thou canst extinguish the fire 
that consumes me^ or without extinguishing it^ Thou canst 
make it serve to cool me, as did the flames of the fiery 
furnace the young Israelites. I implore Thee for the one 
or the other. What matters it in what way I attain happi- 
ness? If by the possession of earthly goods^ I shall be eternal- 
ly thankful ; if by their privation^ it will be a miracle still 
more glorious to Thy holy name^ and one that will lay me 
under greater obligations.^^ Such a prayer is worthy a true 
Christian. And what will be its results? Eirst^, come what 
may^ you will be perfectly contented. Can they who lan- 
guish most for worldly treasures^ desire more ? Secondly^ 
you will infallibly receive not one alone of the coveted 
graces^ but become a sharer in both. God will bestow upon 
you riches and the spirit of detachment^ so that you may 
possess the former without danger. He will take away 
your sufferings whilst infusing into you such a thirst for 
them that, without the cross, you will gain the merit of the 
patience of the cross. In a word, He will make you happy 
here below, whilst at the same time causing you to feel and 



256 Preserving Peace Amid spiritual Weakness. 

understand the nothingness of earthly happiness. In this 
way, your happiness here on earth cannot contribute to 
your misery in the other world. What can you desire 
more? So great a good certainly deserves the asking. It 
is worth importunity and perseverance in prayer. The 
reason that so little is received is not only that we ask so 
little, but also because we rarely pray aright for the little 
w^e do ask. 

Do you desire that your prayers be infallibly heard? 
Would you constrain God to fulfil all your desires? I say 
to you, above all, never weary nor waver in prayer ! He 
who ceases to pray soon loses humility and confidence ; and 
therefore deserves not to be heard. An ancien:: Father of 
the Church says : ^^Pray not in an imperious tone, as if you 
would be heard at once. That would seem as if you ex- 
pected from God instant obedience to your commands. Do 
you not know that He rejects the proud and gives His 
grace to the humble? What ! your pride revolts when you 
are constrained to repeat the same petition ! Does it not 
evince a want of confidence in the Divine Goodness, so 
quickly to despair of obtaining what is asked, or to regard 
the least delay as a refusal ? ^' 

Christian souls, learn a truth which I would deeply im- 
print upon your heart ! A proper idea of Divine Goodness 
will never allow^ a person to think himself rejected, he can 
never believe that God will rob him of hope. For my part, 
I avow that the longer God permits me to pray for a grace, 
the more my desire for it increases ; neither do I consider 
my past prayer lost, unless it has been discontinued. But 
if, after a whole yearns fruitless entreaty, I go on as fer- 
vently as when I began, I have not the slightest doubt of 
the fulfilment of my desires. Far from becoming dis- 
couraged at the delay I rejoice, convinced that the longer 
God perm.its me to pray, the more perfectly I shall be heard. 
Had my first entreaties been utterly fruitless, I should not 
have had the grace to repeat them and my confidence would 
not have remained unshaken. But since my perseverance 



Prayer. 257 

has not faltered, I may justly hope to be richly rewarded. 
Not till after sixteen years of prayers and tears, did St. 
Monica obtain the conversion of her son, St. Augustine. 
But 0, Avhat a conversion ! What a consummate change of 
mind I How much more than the pious mother had dared 
to hope ! Augustine was shackled by the chains of sensual 
pleasures and unbelief. All that Monica desired was to see 
the licentious youth happily united in the bonds of holy 
wedlock, and God gave her the joy of seeing him embrace 
the highest counsels of the Gospel. She desired only that 
Augustine should be a Christian, and God appointed him 
a shepherd of His flock, a priest, and a bishop. Had 'this 
mother, after one or two years' prayer, allowed discourage- 
ment to seize upon her ; or had she, seeing the evil she 
deplored ever on the increase, after ten or twelve years, 
ceased to supplicate for her son's conversion, what an injury 
would she not have done him, of what consolation 
deprived herself, of what treasures robbed future genera- 
tions ! 

One word now for pious souls who plead at the foot of 
the altar for those priceless spiritual goods, for which God 
is so pleased to be petitioned. Happy souls, who in the 
light of the Lord have understood the value of earthly things 
— courageous souls, who groan under the yoke of passion 
and implore deliverance from perverse affections — fervent 
souls, inflamed with the desire of serving God holily 
and perfectly, — pious souls, who implore the conversion 
of a beloved husband, of sons, or friends ; — I beg you, 
in God's name, not to weary ! Never leave off praying. 
Be indefatigable ! Be persevering ! To-day God denies, 
to-morrow you shall receive ! This year you have been un- 
successful, but next year you shall superabound. Do not 
consider your labor lost. God numbers your every sigh. 
You shall receive according to the measure of your suppli- 
cations. You are collecting for yourself a treasure which 
will suddenly be yours and amply fulfil your desires. 

Behold, again, the loving mystery of the Lord ! Sup- 
17 



258 Pi^eserving Peace Amid Spirihial Weakness. 

posing that He refuses your petition. He dissembles only 
to inflame you with new fervor. Eecall the history of His 
treatment of the Canaanite woman. He would neither see 
nor hear her. He treated her as a stranger — yes^ He even 
treated her sternly. One would think that He would have 
become impatient and indignant, that the importunity of 
the unfortu^nate creature would have exasperated Him. 
But no ! He is filled with wonder at her confidence and 
humility. They rejoice His Divine Heart. It is for the 
same reason that He appears to reject you, that you, too, 
may repeat your prayer. ^"'0 disguised Goodness that as- 
sumes the appearance of cruelty I ^^ cries out the Abbe 
Guerric. ^^ With what tenderness dost Thou reject those 
to whom Thou dost intend to grant the most ! ^^ Be not 
led into error, Christian soul ! Implore the more earnestly, 
the more God seems to reject you. 

Do like the Canaanite woman. Arm yourself wnth the 
same weapons against God as He Himself uses against you. 
Say to Him : " True, Thou wouldst throw the bread of 
children to the dogs, wert Thou to let me share it. I am 
wholly undeserving, nor do I expect it in virtue of my own 
merits. It is through those of my Saviour only that I ask. 
Ah, Lord ! take less account of my unworthiness than of 
Thy promises ! Be not unjust to Thy own mercy by treat- 
ing me so justly I Were I more worthy of Thy favors, the 
conferring of Thy benefits on me would honor Thee less. 
It is, indeed, not just to bestow favors on an ungrateful re- 
cipient ; but I implore Thy mercy and not Thy justice. ^^ 
Remain firm, happy soul ! You who have begun to wrestle 
so well with the Lord, let Him not go free. He is pleased 
when you do Him violence, for He desires to be conquered 
by you. Distinguish yourself by your importunity. Be- 
come a marvel of perseverance. Force the Lord to show 
himself to you unveiled. Entreat His mercy until filled 
with astonishment He says to you : " Great is thy faith : 
be it done to thee as thou wilt." ' 

i Matt. XV. 23. 



Prayer. 259 



SECOND POINT.i 

Various Instructions on Prayer and on the Dryness often Ex- 
perienced in it. 

As soon as certain souls cease to experience pleasure in 
prayer, they are not unfrequently tempted to ])ray no more. 
To discover their error they must consider that perfect 
prayer and the love of God are one and the same thing. 
Prayer does not consist in emotions of sweetness^ in pious 
imaginations, in vivid mental illuminations, nor even in the 
consoling consciousness of contemplating God. These are 
only externals. Without them the love of God may be the 
purer in us ; because as soon as deprived of all such addi- 
tions, it is more directly and exclusively united to Him 
alone. But such a love of pure faith deprives poor nature 
of comfort and supj)ort. We deem all lost by such despoil- 
ment, whereas all is gained. 

Pure love resides solely in the will. It is not an effect of 
the feelings, and the imagination has no part in it. It acts 
without sentiment just as blind faith believes without see- 
ing. You must not suppose love to exist in the conceit of 
the imagination. Not at all. True love lives in the will 
separated from the imagination. The more intellectual 
the interior operation, the greater its efficacy, the higher 
the degree of perfection that God desires for us. The 
operation of our will is, therefore, much more perfect when 
it is purely spiritual; for by it faith is proved and humility 
preserved. Then is love chaste and sincere. Then the 
soul loves God for Himself, no longer depending upon sweets 
or consolations. She follows the Lord, but not because of 
the multiplication of the bread. 

" What V some one replies, " does piety consist in mere 
union of our will with the will of God, which union is, 
perhaps, more imaginary than real?^^ I answer : " If this 
union of the will with God is not confirmed by fidelity on 

1 Taken fron F6nelon. 



26o Preserving Peace Amid spiritual Weakness. 

important occasions^ I shall indeed believe it chimerical ; 
for a good tree brings forth good fruit. A good will^ 
although co-existing with those little weaknesses that God 
leaves in the soul for her humiliation^ should make us at- 
tentive to fulfil the Divine Will. If she is conscious of 
her daily faults^ she may feel sure of possessing that up- 
rightness of will that entitles her to a place among the 
^men of good will.'^^ 

True virtue and pure love are found only in the wall. 
And is it not a great deal for one always to incline to the most 
perfect as soon as he knows it ? to retrace his steps when 
he remarks that he has deviated from it in the slightest de- 
gree? never deliberately to Avill anything that God does 
not will ? and finally, in a spirit of entire renunciation and 
self-sacrifice, to be perfectly ready to surrender all, and that 
even when every species of consolation is wanting ? Do 
you count as nothing self-examination, the retrenchment of 
self-love, the habit of acting in naked faith, the rejecting 
of useless returns upon self? Does not the old man die 
more quickly by these means than by the beautiful reflec- 
tions of self-love and the numerous exterior exercises by 
which we seek to prove our progress? 

It is an infidelity against pure faith for a soul to wish to 
know for a certainty that her state is good, and for that 
purpose to aim at knowing exactly what she does. We shall 
never know it, for God wills that we should remain ignorant 
of such things. For this reason, to reflect so much upon 
it simply means to lose time in w^alking by making consid- 
erations on one's gait. The safest and shortest way is that of 
self-abnegation, self-forgetfulness, and abandonment to 
God. Self should not, except through necessity, receive a 
thought. 

The best prayer is no other than the love of God. For 
this not many words are necessary. God has no need of 
our words. He knows our most secret sentiments. You 
truly pray w^ien your heart prays ; and the heart prays by 
its desires. To pray means a'so to desire, but to desire what 



Prayer. 261 

God wills we should desire. Conformably to this principle 
St. Augustine says : ^^He that loves little prays little ; he 
that loves much, prays much. ^^ 

The heart that is animated by right desires and true love 
never ceases to pray. The love that lies concealed in the 
depths of the heart, prays without intermission ; for though 
the thoughts are not turned directly to God, He know^s 
them. God sees in our souls the desire which He Himself 
has infused, the desire of w^hich you yourself are not always 
conscious. This desire, which is your determined frame of 
mind, touches the heart of God ; it is a secret voice w^hich 
incessantly brings down His mercy upon us ; indeed it is 
itself that " Spirit which asketh for us Av^ith unspeakable 
groanings.^^ ^ 

This love implores God to give what is w^anting to us, to 
regard our weakness less than the uprightness of our good 
intentions. We know not for what w^e should ask, and we 
would often long for what would be injurious to us. We 
would aim at special graces, pious sentiments, and shining 
virtues, fitted only to nourish nature and self-confidence. 
But pure love prepares us for all the secret designs of God. 
It leads to unreserved abandonment to His will and renders 
it at all times eager to allow Him to do in us His will, w^hat 
He wills and as He will. 

In this happy state, whilst willing nothing, we actually 
will all that happens to us. What God gives us is precisely 
what we would have wished ; for we wish all that He wills, 
and only w^hat He wills. This condition includes in itself 
every species of prayer. It is a disposition of the heart 
that contains in itself every desire ; for the Spirit asks in 
us what the Spirit Itself will give us. Even in the midst • 
of exterior occupations, even w^hen the circumstances in 
which Providence has placed us are such as to occasion dis- 
sipation, we carry within our breast an inextinguishable fire 
that is constantly uttering its silent prayer, like a lamp ever 
burning l3efore the throne of the Lord; ^^I sleep, but my 

1 Romans viii. 26, 



262 Preserving Peace Amid spiritual Weakness. 

heart watches/^ ^ ^^ Blessed is that servant whom his lord 
finds watching/^ ^ 

To preserve this spirit of prayer, and consequent union 
with God, we must observe two rules in particular. First, 
that we nourish it ourselves ; and secondly, that we avoid 
everything whereby we could lose it. 

What nourishes the spirit of prayer in us? Regular 
spiritual reading and meditation ; frequently looking up to 
God during the day, a retreat from time to time, and the 
reception of the Sacraments. 

Everything by Avhich we might lose the spirit of prayer 
should fill us with fear and rouse us to greater watchful- 
ness. Therefore we must avoid too great distractions and 
worldly society. We must renounce all pleasures that too 
greatly excite the passions ; we must ward off everything 
that could re-awaken love for the world, or our former 
vicious inclinations. 

We might multiply these points to infinity, but we. can 
here give only general rules, for every soul has hei* own 
special needs. 

In order to nourish the spirit of prayer one must choose 
for spiritual reading the books that instruct on duties and 
failings, that teach us the greatness of God, that tell us 
how we are in duty bound to serve Him, and that point out 
in what we have failed. There is no question here of the 
reader^s heart being roused to violent emotion as if by a 
touching drama. ^^The tree must bear fruit. ^^ ^ Life in 
the root is proved by the f ruitfulness of its branches. 

The subject of meditation should neither be choice nor 
subtle. The best are those simple and natural reflections 
that spring directly from the truths of faith. Consider few 
of them, but do so profoundly, leisurely, tranquilly, with- 
out aiming at high thoughts and glorious visions. Above 
all, strive to show forth in your daily life what you have 
learned in meditation. 

With regard to the manner of meditating, experience 

1 Canticle v, 2- 2 Luke xii. 37. a Matt. vii. 17. 



Prayer. 263 

must be the guide. He wlio finds a fixed method good, 
should keep to it. But he who cannot subject himself to 
such, ought not on this account to contemn what is beneficial 
to many other souls, and what is so highly recommended 
by spiritual men of great piety and experience. Every 
method is intended to help the soul and not to hinder her. 
As soon as it becomes useless or a hindrance, we must aban- 
don it. 

In the beginning it would be well to use a book, closing 
it at the point that strikes us, and reopening it when food 
for meditation is exhausted. As a general rule, those truths 
that are the more attractive are the more useful for us ; for 
God makes known to us through them. His particular im- 
pulse of grace. By this means also we can peacefully follow 
our inclinations. " The Spirit breatheth where He will ; 
so is every one that is born of the Spirit.^^ ^ " Where the 
Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. ^^ ^ 

By degrees consideration diminishes, whilst pious emo- 
tions, quiet contemplation, and holy desires increase. The 
soul has been instructed and sufficiently convinced ; the 
heart now begins to enjoy — it is nourished and inflamed. 

Prayer, at last, becomes by a simple and clear intuition 
more and more perfect, and the soul no longer needs so 
many subjects, no longer multiplies reflections. One word 
may afford sufficient matter for long prayer and considera- 
tion. We turn to God as to a friend. One has, at first, a 
thousand things to say, a thousand things to ask. Gradu- 
ally, however, the conversation begins to fiag, though with- 
out detriment to the enjoyment of the interview. All has 
been told, all has been discussed, there remains nothing 
more to be said. But the sweetness of being together, of 
gazing upon each other, of sitting side by side, is still 
theirs, they still taste the happiness of a sincere and inti- 
mate friendship. Though silent, they understand each 
other : they feel that they are intimately united, that both 

1 John iii. 8. 2 h. cor. iii. 17. 



264 Preserving Peace Amid Spirittcal Weakness. 

hearts are but one^ and they ponr without reserve one into 
the other. 

So should prayer become a simple^ coniBidential union 
with God^ a union that transcends all human conceptiou. 
But God Himself must raise us to this prayer. To aspire to 
it ourselves would be dangerous presumption. One must be 
conducted step by step by an experienced guide^ who^ first 
by thorough instruction in spiritual things and then by 
urging on to perfect self-denial, secures a solid foundation 
for the edifice about to be raised. 

As to the exercises of a retreat, and the reception of the 
Holy Sacraments, the soul must be guided by the judgment 
of the spiritual director. The particular needs of the soul, 
the effects of the Holy Sacraments on her, together with many 
other personal details should be taken into consideration. 



PART IV. 

OF SCRUPLES. 

CHAPTER I. 

What is to be Understood by Scruples.— The Dif- 
ference between the Scrupulous and the 
Truly Pious.— Certain Characteris- 
tics by which Scruples 
may be recognized. 




SCRUPLE is a doubt as to what is or is not 
lawful. It may have little or no foundation, al- 
though it sometimes assumes the appearance of 
conviction, and throws the conscience into great confusion/ 

Whoever is frequently disquieted by doubts of this kind, 
whether on one or several points, may be called scrupulous. 
This word has a contemptible signification, and as the most 
scrupulous are often erroneously reckoned the most pious, 
the scorn attached to the epithet frequently falls upon de- 
votion itself. This is most unjust, for true piety is always 
coupled with light. Ignorance and doubt spring from 
spiritual darkness alone. 

Neither must true piety be judged by the false ideas 
which scrupulous souls form of it. Two great masters of 
the interior life have in a few lines sketched their own 
high ideas of it. St. Francis de Sales says, ^' We must do 
everything from love, and nothing through constraint. We 
must love obedience more than we fear disobedience.^^ 

1 Vai quez in 2. 2 disp. 67, Art. 2. 

265 



266 Scrttples. 

And the celebrated Archbishop of Cambray adds: ^^ Woe 
to those triflings self-entangled souls that are always in fear, 
whom fear leaves no time to love and make generous- 
progress ! my God, I know it is Thy will that the 
heart which loves Thee should be broad and free ! There- 
fore, I shall act with confidence, as the child playing in the 
arms of its mother. I shall rejoice in the Lord, and shall 
seek to make others rejoice. I shall enlarge my heart in 
the assembly of the children of God, and I shall strive to 
acquire the child-like sincerity, innocence, and joy of the 
Holy Spirit. Far from me, my God, that miserable and 
over-solicitous knowledge which is ever consumed with self, 
ever holding the balance in hand to Aveigh every atom ! 
Such lack of simplicity in the souFs dealings with Thee is 
truly an outrage against Thee. Such rigor imputed to 
Thee is unworthy of Thy paternal heart. ^^ 

Scrupulosity is not perfection, it is failing. It is a weak- 
ness for which the soul, far from glorying, should humble 
herself before the Lord. To wade in conjectures, and to 
discover sin where sin does not exist, is a mental defect 
wholly irrational. Such a fault is as fatal as it is ridiculous, 
and is justly numbered among the greatest dangers to which 
a soul can be exposed. " A narrow, scrupulous conscience, ^^ 
says Gerson, ^'has often worse consequences than one that 
is too broad ; for it is a way without an end, it wearies with- 
out leading to the desired term — eternal salvation ! Dis- 
couragement, and too often despair, are its result. ^^ 

According to Father Alvarez de Paz, the following are 
the chief characteristics of scruples, and by them a scrupu- 
lous soul may be known : 

1st, and chiefly (and upon these signs should one most 
depend), when your director assures you of the fact. 

2d. When you persist in thinking that you have con- 
fessed mortal sins, though your confessor assures you that 
there is either insufficient matter for absolution, or at most 
only slight venial sins. 

od. When you have asked an experienced director's 



What IS to be Understood by Scruples. 267 

advice on your doubts^ and his answers have left you as 
comfortless as before. 

4th. When you often propose questions upon trivial^ in- 
significant matters which might apparently be easily settled. 

5th. When Avitli excessive care and anxiety you try to 
avoid certain imperfections over which the most pious souls 
pass lightly. 

6th. When you are doubtful about things that do not 
disturb even the most anxious souls. 

7th. When you are sad and dejected about past sins ; 
when you muse over former confessions, and are worried 
about a thousand ridiculous thoughts which you persist in 
regarding as sins^, although your will had no share in them. 

8th. When you imagine your confessor does not under- 
stand you sufficiently to guide you^ and when under 
this pretext you obstinately determine to oppose his deci- 
sions and commands; for instance^ when in confession you 
refuse to adhere to the points he has prescribed to you, or 
to go to Holy Communion. AVhoever^ guided by his own 
judgment or that of his director, perceives in himself one 
of these signs^ must admit that he is scrupulous. He 
should mistrust himself, renounce the direction of his own 
conscience, and confide himself to better hands, as the sick 
man leaves to the physician all the wisdom, judgment, and 
foresight necessary for his case. 




CHAPTER II. 
General Causes of Scruples. 

pAKMINDEDNESS.— A very common cause of 
scruples and unfouinded doubt is the natural 
weakness of a mind upon which everything makes 
an impression^ and which a trifle is sufficient to rob of 
peace. 

This mental weakness may prevail in a greater or less 
degree. Existing in the highest degree, it trammels free- 
will and sound reason, and even entirely destroys them. But 
of such mental debility I speak not here, for its victims call 
for compassion and not for advice. The mental weakness 
here alluded to, is a natural defect which may be united 
with the greatest candor and virtue. It consists in the 
facility of being easily disquieted without the power of 
afterward deciding how far consent has been given. 

2. A Perplexed Brain. — There are souls to whom it 
would be a great relief to be able to express themselves 
freely. They would speak openly if they could clearly and 
intelligibly understand the cause of their own trouble. 
But their brain is confused. They can declare nothing 
with certainty, and their words are naturally as confused 
and unintelligible as their thoughts. The director thinks, 
at first, that he has understood them ; but a moment after 
a different version of the story is related. He may succeed 
in calming the soul for the time, but soon follow intermin- 
able questions and endless explanations. 

This confusion of thought often arises from an exagger- 
ated subtlety of the understanding that is ever ready to 
rack the brain, that in its vagaries outstrips the limits of 
common sense. A sound, healthy mind accepts reliable 
evidence, and* with it remains in peace; but a crafty one 

268 



General Causes of Scruples. 269 

with a head screwed to concert pitch, finds doubt where 
none exists, has its second thoughts, its sharp points with 
which to torment itself and others. It never accepts the 
decisions given it. He who gropes along this way instead 
of following the path of Christian simplicity, enlighten- 
ment, and knowledge, buries himself ever more and more 
deeply in darkness. He is wanting in humility, the only 
road that leads to light: " If you become not as little chil- 
dren,^^ says Our Lord, ^^you shall not enter into the king- 
dom of heaven. ^^ ^ But children are docile, they hearken 
to their master^s words. In all simplicity they receive in- 
struction, their mind becomes gradually enlightened, and 
their judgment formed. It is precisely in this particular 
that anxious souls should allow themselves to be guided by 
their spiritual directors; otherwise they will never possess 
that interior peace which is so little in harmony with vain 
cavillings. 

3. Ak Ukbridled Imagixatio:n". — A flighty imagina- 
tion which welcomes every fancy and chases after every 
novelty, is a fertile source of scruples. This is the more 
true, by how much the more the imagination tends to ex- 
aggerate and to view everything in a distorted form. If 
moreover, stubbornness of character is added to such an 
imagination, then the resistance of one who would rectify 
it only embitters its possessor and confirms her in her own 
ideas. The imagination excites the senses to such a degree 
that one can hardly distinguish whether the will takes part 
in the matter, or upon what side it stands. Such a state is 
in the highest degree deserving pity. Yet this fault is not 
inconsistent with sincere piety; for piety has its seat in the 
heart, whose recesses are inaccessible to the imagination so 
long as the will bars the entrance. 

They that confound imagination with their own being, 
that look upon it as part of self, should be taught that this 
faculty of the soul is, to a certain degree, a stranger, some- 
thing outside of themselves over which they possess no 

1 Matt, xviii. 3. 



270 Scruples. 

other power than that of not allowing themselves to be 
ruled by it; that its silly conceits cannot be accredited to 
them as faults, since they are accountable only for the 
movements of their heart. This latter, even in the midst of 
a thousand impure imaginations, remains innocent so long 
as it takes no pleasure in such fancies. Finally, let the 
tried soul know that there is no better means to banish 
such temptations, or at least to lessen their attacks than to 
regard them with cool contempt. Fear increases their 
violence and obstinacy; scorn puts them to flight. The 
spirit of impurity especially has, for those that despise it, 
only the strength of a child; but it is a giant to those that 
fear it. 

He who is tormented with a strong imagination, must 
learn not only to distinguish it from the will, but also to 
bridle it. Fenelon says : ^^You think, perhaps, that to 
curb your imagination does not depend upon you; but I 
beg leave to assure you that it does depend very much upon 
you. When one puts an end to deliberate emotions, the 
indeliberate are at once diminished. The less one yields to 
excitement, the greater his chance of becoming habitually 
calm, the greater his power to control his heated imagina- 
tion. A pebble falling into the water, causes it for a time 
to play in ripples. So, in the beginning, you may not have 
been able to prevent some little emotion; but cease to agi- 
tate the water, and it will of itself gradually return to rest. 
God will guard your imagination if you cease to excite it 
by scruples, reflections, inquiries. . . . Turn away from 
long entertainments with your disorderly imagination. 
Control your day dreams, but do not use violence, for that 
would be like attempting to restrain a rushing stream. 
When you find that your imagination is growing excited, is 
conjuring up dangerous pictures before your mind, turn 
quietly to God, and aim not at offering determined resis- 
tance to its vain phantoms. Let them pass unmolested 
and busy yourself with some useful occupation. ^^ 

4. Ideal Perfection. — Many souls of perfectly sound 



General Causes of Scruples. 271 

mind and moderate imagination, suffer notwithstanding 
from scruples, because they create for themselves an ideal 
virtue quite incompatible with man's condition in this life. 
They do not think of the evil consequences of original sin, 
which remain in us after our justification; they are aston- 
ished at the opposing elements, the contradictory inclina- 
tions and sentiments they discover in themselves. They 
know not how to distinguish between what must be im- 
proved and w^hat endured; between what renders them 
guilty and what is left them for their humiliation; what is 
deliberate and what is not. They do not understand their 
real duty. They desire to uproot what ought to remain as 
a trial of patience. They are, consequently, ever uneasy, 
ever making anxious efforts that only serve to weary them, 
to rob them of interior peace, to plunge them from dis- 
couragement into despair; since it is impossible for them 
to reach their unreasonably pursued ideaL 

The guide of such souls should teach them, that to sigh 
over one's misery and complain of it to God, is the ordinary 
prayer of the just; that the spirit is willing, but the flesh 
is weak; that the old man continues to live in us together 
with the new; that man's free-will is redeemed from sin, 
though concupiscence remains; that the senses and imagi- 
nation are opposed to justice; that we carry the precious 
treasure of salvation in a frail vessel of dust, verily, in a 
body of corruption and death; that we must struggle to the 
last moment of our life; and that, finally, according to St. 
Augustine, '^Our perfection here below consists less in not 
committing faults than in bewailing those w^e do commit." 

5. Imperfect Knowledge of Eeligious Principles. 
— Many souls know very well all that has just been said; 
yet they are consumed with pangs of conscience, because 
they are wanting in an adequate knowledge of the great 
principles of religion, and because they have no right idea 
of the hidden connection between certain moral truths that 
appear to be in direct opposition to one another. 

Such persons fix their eyes upon one truth to the exclu- 



I"]! Scruples. 

si on of all the others, forgetting that one may perhaps 
modify another. They know the unselfishness and neces- 
sity of almsgiving, but they know nothing of wise economy. 
They are prepared to pardon, but they will not admonish. 
They tremble in holy fear of God, but their hearts remain 
closed to the consolation of confidence in Him. They un- 
derstand the dangers of speaking, but not those of keeping 
silence. They love prayer and the practice of penance, but 
they are wanting in the moderation which understands how 
to harmonize works of devotion with those of penance. 

This exclusive attention to the acquisition of a single 
virtue exposes souls to a thousand doubts. Their one- 
sided manner of looking at a thing, in order to deter- 
mine their mode of action, leads them to commit a hundred 
vagaries, which their sound reason does not approve, but 
which their conscience imperiously demands. They would 
regard as a great fault the sacrifice of inward agitation to 
exterior decorum, although they know well that on more 
than one occasion the former has led them too far. 

To quiet such souls we must explain to them that the 
virtues are all connected, all in harmony with one another; 
and that they must never devote themselves exclusively to 
one. 

In like manner, must they be instructed on the difference 
between the Counsels and the Commandments; between 
small faults of frailty and mortal sins. Every soul should 
endeavor to know the exact line of her duties. Not that 
such knowledge should prevent the striving after higher 
perfection or lead to the neglect of acts of virtue beyond 
this line, but that she may embrace such acts and such per- 
fection magnanimously and heartily, a proceeding abso- 
lutely necessary, and yet quite incompatible with the over- 
strained fear of sin. 

In connection with this, St. Antony gives us two rules 
of conduct, which will make the fulfilment of duties easy, 
and which we recommend souls to weigh maturely: 

I. '^ When a precept admits of two interpretations, one 



General Cattses of Scruples. 273 

rigorous the other mild, we should, other things being 
equal, prefer the latter; for the Commandments of God and 
His Church have not been given to rob us of interior con- 
solation, though a scrupulous and too anxious interpreta- 
tion of them would necessarily produce such an effect. — 
Thus, for example, the command to fast does not hold 
good for all Christians; for the weak as well as for the 
strong, for the sick and for the healthy, with the same 
force. It is binding, in proper time and measure, only 
upon those who can fast without any notable prejudice to 
their health. 

II. ^^jSTeither God nor the Church would command us 
anything impossible; for reason teaches that no one can be 
forced to do what he is not able. But the literal meaning 
of the word of the New Testament, ' impossille' appears to 
me to be 'hardly possible,^ by reason of too great difficulty, 
— for otherwise how could even the Lord say: ' My yoke is 
sweet T Thus the commandment enjoins us to pray de- 
voutly though not with an uninterrupted, effective atten- 
tion which human weakness does not always admit. But 
it imposes upon us that obligation only as far as is possible. 
Such fervor and attention redly existed at the commence- 
ment of your prayer; but now it is implied in your good 
intention, so long as you do not by wilful distractions de- 
liberately retract it. Of such distractions, however, a scru- 
pulous soul would very rarely be guilty.'^ 

III. To these two rules of the holy divine, on the unani- 
mous consent of all theologians, a third may be added: 
^"^A scrupulous soul, on account of her weakness, is not 
bound to watch so carefully over her conduct as others. 
Moderate care is sufficient for her.''^ 

It is, however, highly important for such souls to have 
a true idea of God; for practically, at least, they almost 
always consider Him as a hard, exacting master; as an inex- 
orable judge whom nothing can soften; and, shall I say it ? 
— almost as a spy who lays traps for them, who waits to en- 
snare them in a fault. Is this to honor the Lord as He 



2 74 Scruples. 

wills to be honored ? Is He not the most tender, the most 
merciful of Fathers, the Shepherd who gives His life to 
save His unfaithful sheep, the God whose tender mercies 
are above all His works ?' Would one think of an honest 
man as such souls think of God ? It is easy to understand 
how an idea so false and cheerless of God's disposition 
toward men must alarm and confound souls, and how 
necessary it is for such erroneous judgments to be rectified. 

6. Too MAXY Eeflectio:n^s upoi^r Self a:n^d Oke^s 
ow:Nr Iktextioks. — Excessive self-examination and inqui- 
ries into one's intentions, end in uncertainty. The more 
closely one considers himself, the less he learns to know 
himself. One must be at a certain distance from an object 
in order rightly to distinguish it. If he stand too near, it 
appears, if seen at all, just as indistinct as if at too great a 
distance. 

This thought must be placed clearly before souls, pious 
and fervent, but who do not understand the weakness of 
human reason, nor how easily it is confused and dazzled 
when it views an object too long and steadily. They will 
learn to know themselves much better if from time to time 
they view self at a certain distance; for a correct view main- 
tains one in a happy medium between the two extremes of 
never reflecting upon self, or of doing so too frequently. 

7. How Difficult it is to Judge Oxe's Self 
Justly. — It is very hard to judge one's self justly. The 
case in point concerns us too nearly and for this reason our 
judgment is always to be suspected. One is too indulgent; 
whilst another, from fear of this fault, is too exact. One 
shuns self-knowledge; the other thinks he knows himself 
only when he condemns himself. 

The golden mean is for every one to render to himself a 
faithful account of his good and bad deeds; not to bury the 
gifts and talents received from God under his misery; nor 
to abuse them in order to conceal the same misery. Let 

1 Ps. cxliv. 9. 



General Catises of Scruples. 275 

him sigh and thank. He should not excuse the bad, nor 
yet put an evil interpretation on the good. 

Be as just and reasonable toward yourself as toward your 
neighbor. Be humble^ but be also straightforward and 
simple. To avoid pride do not render yourself guilty of 
ingratitude. Prefer interior peace which stimulates you to 
confidence and warmer love, to that suspicious disquiet 
which keeps you always in fear, and leads at last to dis- 
couragement. 

This golden mean, however, is not easily found ; there- 
fore it is more prudent to defer one^s judgment of himself 
to a clear-sighted guide. The latter is disinterested and 
free from prejudice and all that could perplex the mind ; 
hence, 'it is reasonable to prefer his intelligent decision to 
our own confused and suspicious ideas. 

8. The Difficulty ik Distinguishing the Thought 
FEOM Impressions, and the Impressions from Consent. 
— If one were dealing with theory only, he might more 
readily leave the judgment of such matters to others. But 
most scruples do not relate to temptations of mere passing 
thought ; they are those that dwell in the mind for some 
time, and produce upon it an impression more or less 
lively. 

Here the discrimination must be made as to whether 
consent has been given and to what extent ; whether the 
free-will approved that in which sensuality found pleasure; 
and whether what came into the mind tarried there, or w^as 
deliberate in its beginning or progress. 

The imagination is so closely allied to the heart, and so 
near to the understanding, that it is very difficult to dis- 
tinguish the action of each, which difiiculty occasions a 
thousand doubts in otherwise w^ell-instr acted and often 
very innocent souls. 

If those to whom the foregoing state of disquiet applies, 
had to decide the same matters for others, their judgment 
would not, in general, be expressed so severely as is that 
upon themselves. Not unfrequently they would counsel a 



276 Scruples. 

friend to despise what throws themselves into fear and 
donbt; for in the former case they jndge things by the 
light of truth and not according to feeling. The impres- 
sion made by evil thoughts perplexes the mind of the one 
beset by them; and yet in the case of another, he would be 
perfectly clear-sighted. 

Ask such souls what they would do if another laid the 
same difficulties before them. They would certainly not 
judge at random. They would make accurate comparisons 
between the bad thouglits and the ordinary actions of the 
person, between the impression produced by the temptation 
and the soul's actual wishes and sentiments, between the 
unavoidable effect of evil representations and that depend- 
ent on free-will. Not till after such comparison would 
they clearly distinguish temptation from coiisent. Then 
they would declare that, although the temptation might 
have been strongly felt, yet free-will had no part in it, and 
consequently no consent had been given. 

The director must persuade such souls to follow, in their 
own case, the same moderate and secure principles ; and to 
question others less, since they themselves are so capable of 
imparting wise and reasonable advice. 

Learn to distinguish between the feeRng of sin and con- 
sent thereto. The former is a fire enkindled in the heart, 
not easily extinguished, and it often produces sinful im- 
pressions ; but the latter is a free act of the will, by which 
the soul chooses to sin. The former leads to the border of 
the abyss, but only the latter can precipitate into it. 
Without the will, feeling can never render the soul guilty. 
Do not say: ^^If I have not explicitly consented, still I 
fear, on account of the length of the temptation, that I 
may have indirectly consented. ^^ One may struggle long 
without being conquered. Kot by the continuance of the 
temptation, but by the resistance of the will, must we judge 
whether or not we have consented. 

Gerson says : " We do not commit mortal sin because 
bad thoughts come to us ; for we only sin when we give 



General Cattses of Samples. 277 

free consent to these thoughts^ that is^ when our will favors 
them and finds satisfaction in them. We have nothing to 
fear so long as our will disapproves or hates the evil. 
Without its consent the most filthy pictures sully the soul 
less than the hideous face of some horrid monster Avould 
blur or cloud the surface of a mirror into which he glanced. 
On the contrary^ temptation increases the soul's merit. 
Conscience has to deal only with the free^ rational will 
which belongs to the superior part of the soul^ and which 
can preserve its horror of forbidden pleasures even wdien 
the gross sensuality of perverse nature most violently ex- 
periences the sting of evil. These last impressions^ it may 
here be remarked^ are often so strong that a scrupulous 
soul will not only imagine that she has consented^ but even 
that she is in a sort of hell^ in Avhich she is rejected by God 
on account of her past sins. She hovers on the brink of 
despair.^' The foregoing instruction shows how unfounded 
are such fears. 

9. A Tender, Timorous CoxsciEis^CE. — A tender con- 
science may easily become anxious, and how far may not 
this fear extend when there is question of eternal salva- 
tion ! 

The director should combat scruples on the principles 
from which they proceed. He should tell anxious souls 
how much they are opposed to true i)iety, and wdiat a hin- 
drance they are to perfection, w^hich is founded upon love 
and confidence. 

^"^ Nothing/^ says Fenelon, *^is so contrary to Christian 
simplicity as is scrupulosity. It conceals, I knoAV not 
wdiat, double-dealing and falsehood. The scrupulous soul 
imagines her trouble and anxiety to proceed from her tender 
love of God, whilst in reality she is only disquieted about 
self. Natural motives and self-love make her jealous of 
her ov/n perfection. ... It is not God who infuses such 
anxiety and returns upon self. When He shows us our 
faults, He does it simply and mildly. He reproaches and 
cpnsoles at the same time. He humbles without confusing; 



278 Scruples. 

He arouses in us the deepest sliame^ though mmgled with 
unruffled peace. The Lord is not in the whirlwind. 

" The remedy for this fearful condition is to despise all 
such unfounded fears. Some one has justly said that the 
imagination is the cradle of scruples, whilst sound common 
sense is their tomb. When scruples arise, the soul should 
turn to God and^let them pass unheeded. Occupy the 
mind with other thoughts. A scrupulous soul that reflects 
and takes counsel with herself will always find cause for 
groundless anxiety. One should deal with scruples as 
with a servant whom he allows to go in and out without 
exchanging words. ^^-^ 

Lanspergius adds : '' Despise all these ridiculous and 
impure thoughts. Let them pass like a flock of young 
geese, that deafen us with their cackle. When a dog 
barks at you, you certainly do not stand to dispute 
Avith him. Act in like manner Avith your scruples. To 
despise them will soon rid you of them; to bandy words 
with them is only to impress them more deeply on your 
mind ; neither must you fear nor violently oppose them, if 
you wish to avoid similar or even worse consequences.^^ 

10. The Malice of the Devil. — The devil, who knows 
better than we the evil consequences of scruples is, in his 
cunning, always inventing new material for them ; and, 
with exquisite malice, seeks to keep their dangerous effects 
alive within us. 

He, the enemy of all tranquillity, is ever intent on dis- 
turbing peace of conscience. He, condemned to eternal 
despair, finds consolation in shattering the hope of others. 
He, robbed of eternal bliss, would make the means of sal- 
vation useless to others by inspirijig them with unfounded 
fear and terror. He is consumed wdth envy against those 
that advance in virtue, therefore he labors to retard their 
progress by a thousand hindrances. Obstinate and hard- 
ened in his darkness and pride, the adversary endeavors 
to prevent scrupulous souls from obeying, so that they may 
prefer the judgment of their own benighted mind to that 



General Causes of Scruples. 2 79 

of their director, and proud and rebellious persistence in 
their own views to peaceful humility. 

This is an alluring temptation. Under a hypocritical 
mask it conceals artful malice. The unveiling of it should 
suffice to create the greatest horror of it, and lead a soul 
earnestly intent upon her salvation to obedience and sub- 
jection. This point is, however, too important to be dis- 
posed of lightly. It shall be treated more fully in the 
following chapter. 



CHAPTER III. 
Dangerous Consequences of Scruples. 

Obstinate persistence in one^s own pride and conceit is 
generally the secret source of scruples. The way of God is 
simple and direct for the humble^ and for the pure and 
upright heart. Eoundabout ways and solicitude proceed 
only from want of lights and still more from self-love^ 
which is inexhaustible in its nice reasoning. It cannot 
take a step forward without looking back to regard itself. 
It very reluctantly loses sight of self^ and it is this prefer- 
ence for self that is expressed in scruples. A scrupulous 
soul squanders her own time as well as that of her spiritual 
director ; and with this useless loss she burdens her con- 
science. 

Scruples turn the attention to trifling things instead of 
directing it to more important subjects. It pursues butter- 
flies when it ought to be reflecting on those truths that 
furnish solid food for the souFs nourishment. 

Scruples weary the heart and mind by endless and fruit- 
less musings ; so that neither energy, freedom^ nor courage 
are left for undertaking and prosecuting any good work. 

Scruples make piety a burden^ for the scrupulous soul 
finds in it only torment and difficulty. 

Scruples lead the soul^ at last^ to fear all devotional prac- 
tices ; for none brings consolation ; each becomes a wearisome 
labor that ends in the reproach : ^^ I have committed only 
faults in its performance V 

Scruples pave the way to negligence and tepidity; for it 
is not possible to endure long what is not loved^ nor love 
long what brings only suffering. This exaggerated con- 
scientiousness leads to the opposite extreme^, viz. : a soul 

m 



Dangerous Consequences of Scruples, 281 

once unable to bear in herself small or even imaginary im- 
perfections^ now falls into actual and inexcusable faults. 

Scruples consume the fervor of the soul. The sources 
of fervor are spiritual joy and consolation ; but such senti- 
ments die out when the heart is tired and weary. Sadness 
conceals all that is greatest, most elevating, and consoling 
in religion. The dejected soul sees only its terrifying 
aspect. 

The Wise Man admonishes us to express toward God such 
sentiments as accord with His infinite goodness, and the 
Holy Spirit invites us to taste and see how sweet is the Lord. 
But instead of following this precept, the scrupulous soul 
sees in God only an inexorable judge. She avoids His 
glance instead of seeking it, and she flees from Him, for- 
getting that He is her highest Good, and the God of her 
heart. She turns His threats upon herself and makes over 
His promises to others. She distributes the words of Holy 
Scripture, unjustly retaining for herself those only that in- 
spire terror. 

Thus, scruples that conceal themselves under the cover of 
zeal for justice^ sake, are, in reality, enemies of justice ; for 
they rob the soul of the support she needs to maintain her- 
self firmly in good, they give rise to dangerous temptations 
against faith and holy purity, they cast the soul into that 
gloomy sadness which serves the devil as a mask and renders 
it easy for him covertly to enter hearts. 

Finally, scruples holding the soul chained, as it were, in 
the narrow prison of her own misery, she lives only for her- 
self and her sufferings. Jesus Christ is a stranger to her. 
A solid and enlightened piety would impel her to live wholly 
for her Eedeemer, to conceal herself in His Sacred Wounds, 
there to forget self and to seek in His justice and holiness 
remedies for the evils of which she is always complaining 
and which, alas, she never amends J 



CHAPTER IV. 
Universal Remedy for Scruples. 

In the chapter on the cause of scruples in general^ may 
be found in brief words a remedy for them. But so im- 
portant is this matter^ that we must here speak of several 
cures for the malady^ before treating singly of each and its 
particular remedy. 

I. OccuPATiO]S'. — It is owing' to an over minute self- 
examination that some are constantly worried with anxieties 
of conscience. It would be more advantageous to them to 
occupy themselves in other things. Gerson says : '^ The 
heart of the idler is like a mill in continual motion^ and 
which acts upon itself when it has no more corn to 
grind. ^^ Manual labor, particularly when it is painful and 
very humiliating^ often affords a better remedy for scruples 
than the most learned treatises. 

Earnest study produces the same result if one has the 
talent for it. The dry study of languages so difficult and 
thorny, particularly at the outset, is a salutary means of 
distraction. The translation of a difficult author is also 
very useful for this end; and the corporal works of mercy 
turn the mind from its own musings, to occupy it with at- 
tractive matters. 

II. Cheerful:j^ess. — Melancholy is a natural cause of 
scruples ; therefore, the soul must preserve herself from it 
or seek a remedy for it. She must labor earnestly against 
self, in order to become mistress over the spirit of sadness, 
which frequently holds sway over melancholy temperaments. 
It reduces the soul to a state of relaxation, weariness, and 
anxiety, by which the Evil One is able to retard her advance- 
ment on the path of virtue. The scrupulous soul must 



Unwei^sa^ Remedy for Scruples, 283 

work herself out of this self-made trouble^ must resist sad- 
ness energetically even when she believes herself almost 
overcome. She must take part in conversation and amuse- 
ment, however burdensome such a proceeding may be to 
her ; and she must never follow her inclinations for retire- 
ment, that she may more freely indulge her gloomy 
thoughts and fancies. Conversation with pious and spirit- 
ual persons is interesting, and exerts a healthy influence on 
the anxious soul. St. Teresa desired to see her spiritual 
daughters always bright and cheerful, because by such a de- 
meanor they impart fervor and devotion even to others : 
" My dear sisters,^^ said she, ^^if only God is not offended 
make your intercourse amiable to all. Be friendly and 
cheerful as far as you can, that your neighbors may covet 
your happiness for themselves, and that your virtue may 
not intimidate or frighten any one. The holier the sis- 
ters are, the more cordial and unrestrained should be their 
manner of acting. However sad and troubled you may be, 
you should never avoid recreation and intercourse with your 
sisters. We must earnestly strive to make ourselves lovable 
to all who come in contact with us, but particularly to our 
sisters. Lay this truth very much to heart : God pa3^s no 
attention to a thousand trifles over which you often worry 
and fret.^^ 

III. Humility axd Child-like Simplicity. — ximong 
the virtues which the scrupulous should especially endeavor 
to acquire, the following are recommended : humility, child- 
like simplicity, and obedience ; the renunciation of their 
own ideas, the desire of dependence; a fear of self -direc- 
tion and secret attachment to liberty of opinion; fidelity 
to prayer ; fervor and punctuality in the fulfilment of the 
duties of one's state. 

The scrupulous on experiencing dryness, disgust, and 
other temptations, at once fancy God has abandoned them. 
If they hear fervor spoken of, they must immediately analyze 
the difference between fervor of feeling and fervor of will. 
The former is not demanded of them ; the latter^ which is 



284 Scruples^ ^ 

far more pleasing to God^ and far more lasting, is to be had 
for the asking. A soul possesses sensible fervor when, 
borne on the wings of divine grace, she advances with joy 
and gladness in the way of salvation. Tlien, like the 
Spouse in the Canticles, she runs after the delicious odors 
of God^s sweetness. This state is, assuredly, a very blessed 
one; but it is to be feared that the soul finds too much sat- 
isfaction in it, that her fidelity is a little selfish, that she 
loves the gifts of God as much as God Himself, and that 
she is already receiving here below a part of her reward in 
the joy that springs from the practice of good. 

On the contrary, fervor of will is purely spiritual. Its 
effects are to draw the soul nearer to God, even when she 
appears to be turning from Him. She feels the whole bur- 
den of the cross, and yet she carries it patiently. Every 
moment she stumbles over obstacles, but in the depths of 
her heart live a courage that is not presumptuous, and a 
holy strength that overcomes every obstacle. She, indeed, 
possesses not the tenderness of devotion, but she has the 
determination to practice it. This state is, undoubtedly, 
painful; but it is more perfect than that of sensible fervor, 
for it renders tha soul more conformable to her Crucified 
Jesus. She enters more deeply into the knowledge of her 
nothingness and misery, and her love of God is never 
greater than when deprived of nourishment. In such a 
state, she, so to say, supports herself ; and, in spite of cold- 
ness and darkness, life glows brightly in the interior of her 
heart. 

How well St. Teresa understood this ! For twenty years 
God led her by the way of interior suffering. She never 
asked Him to release her, but only to bear with her. Once, 
when in great interior dryness, the cry escaped her for one 
drop of the dew of heavenly consolation, she reproached 
herself for it as a want of Christian humility and per- 
severance. 

It is, therefore, this fervor of the will that tried souls 
should regard as the highest virtue. When they find them- 



Un tversal Remedy for Sei^tcples, 285 

selves in spiritual dearth and perplexity, let them believe 
that God sends this state to His elect, though not as a sign 
of reprobation. Let this thought calm them. Fidelity to 
duty — this is the solid virtue that God requires of them. 

IV. Cois'sciEXCE Considered ix the True Light. — 
Conscience is that interior voice which tells us what is 
good and what is evil. Its judgments relate partly to what 
we have already done, and partly to what we are about to 
do. In the former case, its importance is far less than in 
the latter. Conscience is in the latter case guided by reason 
and can not undo what has been done, whilst it influenced 
the moral worth of the act before its commission. 

For example, I believe at the time that such an action is 
lawful. If later on I discover that I have erred, and that 
my action was a forbidden one, my discovery does not 
render me guilty, since such was not the case when I com- 
mitted the deed. But if, at the moment of commission, I 
consider the act wrong, and yet commit it, the later dis- 
covery of my mistake does not render me less guilty. It is 
my OAvn perverse will that renders me guilty. 

Conscience is the natural rule of man^s actions, and when 
united with truth it is always to be followed. Yes, even 
an erroneous conscience is to be followed as long as the 
means of setting it right are wanting. In such a case there 
is no other rule of action. But when a person can correct 
his erroneous conscience he should make use of the means 
in his power ; for wilfully to folloAV a guide suspected of 
falsehood is to expose one^s self to the danger of sinning. 
But if one is uncertain as to how he should judge of an 
action, since sumcient reasons are not wanting either for or 
against it, the matter assumes the form of a doubt, and he 
should seek light from another ; for in such a case one is 
virtually without direction. But if he is in the impos- 
sibility of taking counsel, because of hurry or some other 
hindrance, he can act as he thinks best. The protestation 
of the will, ^''I would not do that if I knew it to be a sin,^^ 
suffices to place the conscience in security. 



286 Scruples. 

The foregoing remark is very important for scrupuloas 
persons^ as they are often in doubt and do not always haye 
some one at hand to enlighten them. Often, too, they have 
the very best reasons for considering their actions as not 
sinful ; indeed, they may have a moral certainty that would 
Justify any reasonable person in acting confidently. But 
their miserable propensity to analyze everything, and the 
cunning of the fiend who abuses their weakness, prevent 
their resting on these lawful principles. They give them- 
selves up to a thousand useless and frequently ridiculous 
fears, which cloud the true light they once possessed. Their 
mental anguish rests only upon weak and deceitful possibili- 
ties undeserving of notice. The doubting soul should not 
refrain from action on the strength of such considerations, 
which, far from being the true voice of conscience, are only 
illusory sounds. 

A scrupulous person does not act contrary to his con- 
science when he despises unfounded anxieties, or even when 
he is deaf to well-founded doubts. He must, however, as 
we have said above, renew his good intention. He should, 
moreover, subject the judgment of his false conscience, 
though to him it may appear to be true, to the authority of 
his spiritual guide. Such a proceeding is in accordance 
with his true conscience, which prescribes the rightful 
authority of spiritual directors rather than his own per- 
sonal views ; for the scrupulous are always wanting in the 
light necessary to pass judgment upon their own actions. 
Mayhap the scrupulous will call this "^^ acting contrary to 
conscience. ^^ We reply that we shall not dispute about 
words, but merely say that it is not only allowed, but even 
necessary, so to act ; for the true maxim, that one must not 
act against his conscience, cannot be applicable here. 

From what has been said we may easily understand what 
is meant by the words ^^ forming a conscience. ^^ To form a 
conscience means to establish, with the help of general 
principles, what we may call a practical rule for those occa- 
sions of doubt upon which one cannot directly decide. For 



Universal Remedy for Serttples. 287 

3xample^ imagine two points in question^ one of which you 
must absolutely choose. It is Sunday. Shall I remain with 
a sick person and miss Holy Mass^ or shall I go to Holy 
Mass and set aside the care of the sick ? A w^ell-instructed 
person knows that his duty is to remain with the sick. We 
now take it for granted, however, that you are not well in- 
structed, and that without sin you can find no w^ay out of 
the difficulty. In such a case you need not decide the 
question, since you are not prepared to do so. You must 
call settled principles to your aid, saying: '^'^ There is no 
sin committed from necessity ; for free-will is an indispens- 
able condition of sin. This freedom is Avanting to me, for 
I am forced to do one or other of two things w^hich appear 
to me to be alike sinful. I must either neglect the sick, or 
remain from Holy Mass.^^ Acting upon principle, you may 
conclude that on w^hichsoever course you decide, you can- 
not commit sin. Therefore, on similar occasions, form 
your conscience from the general principle: *^Sin presup- 
poses free-w^ill.^^ The safest plan is always to act on the 
authority of the confessor or director. Although your own 
sense or convictions are in opposition to his decision, yet 
you wdll always be safe in following it. Yes, the only right 
thing to do is to subject yourself to it. 

V. The Necessity of Depexdixg upo^sT Another, 
AND OF Following his Advice. — It is for scrupulous 
souls indispensably necessary to follow the advice of an- 
other. They must, indeed, act ; but in their actions they 
cannot follow their own unreliable judgment ; hence, God 
makes obedience a duty for them. A scrupulous soul, 
then, acts directly contrary to the will of God when she 
guides herself according to her own discernment, instead of 
following the counsel w^hich God gives her through another. 

To free the soul from her scruples, we must tell her that 
she has no choice — she must obey her confessor^s directions. 
But to attain to this blessed state of obedience she must 
not think it is enough to desire this virtue and understand 
its necessity: even the most stubborn are capable of such 



288 Scruples, 

desires. She must submit her sentiments and impressions 
to the scrutiny of her spiritual guide. His reason and not 
liers must prevail. He must conquer her resistance, she 
must follow his decisions ; in one word, she must 'desist 
from self-guidance. This is a sacrifice bitter to pride, but 
humility knows how to sweeten it. Is not self-guidance 
the way of scrupulous souls? They do, indeed, follow their 
spiritual director ; they have a thousand little things to ask 
him, though clinging all the while to their own precon- 
ceived notions. They follow their own judgment as obsti- 
nately after his decision as before. They do not trust him 
fully. They imagine that he makes the way to heaven 
much too broad and easy for them. They, in short, subject 
themselves to his decision only in so far as it pleases them- 
selves. Hoping to find more discerning guides, they wander 
with their difficulties of conscience from confessional to 
confessional, like an anxious invalid that consults every 
physician but puts no trust in any. Nothing so impairs 
the peace of the conscience as these unending consulta- 
tions. A sick man needs but one physician, and each 
soul but one confessor. To run from one to another in- 
creases interior suffering, and gradually engenders aversion 
for the reception of the Holy Sacraments. ^^AVoe to you 
that are wise in your own eyes and prudent in your own 
conceits V ^ says the Lord. On the contrary, submit. " Lean 
not upon thy own prudence. ^^ ^ Silence your self-love, which 
hinders you from submitting your judgment to your father- 
confessor or director, and you will experience in yourself 
the truth of this other promise: ^^ An obedient man shall 
speak of victory. ^' ^ Interior peace is the fruit of obedience. 
This was true even in St. Bernard's time. This saintly 
abbot, hearing that one of his monks through scrupulosity 
no longer said Holy Mass, said to him: *^^Go, brother, on 
my word, and say Holy Mass !" The monk obeyed, and his 
scruples vanished forever. God rewarded his obedience by 
restoring to him interior peace. And now a scrupulous 

1 Is. V. 21. 2 Proverbs iii. 5. ^ Proverbs xxi. 28. 



Universal Remedy for Scruples. 289 

soul says tome: ^^ Indeed, I too should be obedient if I 
had a guide possessed of the piety and enlightenment of St. 
Bernard. But when I think of the comparatively little 
penetration of my father-confessor, I hardly dare confide 
to him my conscience and eternal salvation. ^^ Whoever you 
may be that reasons thus, we reply: " You are wrong. You 
should resign the care of your soul into the hands of a 
guide, not because of his piety, learning, and wisdom (al- 
though it is generally good to make choice of one possessed 
of these precious qualities), but because he is appointed by 
God to reconcile you with Him in the Sacrament of pen- 
ance. To him, therefore, the divine power is granted. 
Hence you should obey him not as man, but as God Him- 
self, who speaks to you by His mouth. ^^ And not unf re- 
quently is this faithful obedience so much the more meri- 
torious and pleasing to God, when he to whom you render 
it for the love of God, through lack of personal qualities, 
merits your confidence less. To act differently, then, would 
be to proceed in a purely human manner. It would be to 
imitate heretics, who believe and do what they think to be 
right without subjecting themselves to any one. Assuredly 
they are not worthy models for souls that would pass for 
devout ! 

We shall conclude in the words of a clear-sighted, intel- 
ligent, spiritual man: "\ am firmly persuaded that all 
remedies against scruples are only useful for those that are 
obedient to their director — for those that let themselves be 
guided by him. A scrupulous person wanting in confidence 
in his guide will never under any conditions be cured. He 
must be considered an invalid of whose recovery one de- 
spairs till he resolves to resign himself to subjection and 
confidence in God. All theologians agree in making obedi- 
ence a strict and unconditional duty for the scrupulous. 

VI. Sacrifice of Oxe^s ow:Nr Doubts. — Choose, then, 
for yourself a guide esteemed for learning and intelligence 
that you may unhesitatingly prefer his judgment to your 
own; but once you have made your choice do not change 



290 Scruples, 

or again resume the direction of yourself. Accept the de- 
cision of your director instead of your own, at least for 
some time, and study which of the two is the more condu- 
cive to your peace. Hearken no longer to yourself, or at 
least to yourself alone; for your past decisions have only 
thrown you into greater perplexity. Take to heart these 
words of Fenelon: ^''As drink increases the thirst of a 
dropsical person, so scruples multiply when they are 
noticed. The scrupulous deserve this punishment. The 
only remedy is to enforce silence upon your tongue and 
diseased understanding. And since you needs must be 
anxious about everything you do, it is better that it should 
be in obedience to another than to your own self-judgment. 
God will bless your first humble efforts of submission; and 
you will perhaps feel so relieved when freed from the 
yoke of self-direction that you will guard against retaking 
so heavy a burden upon your shoulders. ^^ 

The interior conviction of the scrupulous soul that she 
would sin in doing w^hat she is told must by no means serve 
as a pretext for not obeying. This conviction, which she 
falsely takes for conscience, should and must be relin- 
quished. In obedience to her guide she should do even the 
contrary to what her erroneous conscience demands. This 
is the secure way — yes, according to the unanimous opinion 
of theologians, the only way — to accomplish God^s designs 
and attain life eternal. When she acts contrary to her 
tiresome and erroneous convictions she gradually succeeds 
in destroying all that is opposed to interior peace. In vain 
would she object that she dare not act against her con- 
science, for this principle has no longer any application to 
her. She turns it, on the contrary, against herself; for 
the true conscience of the scrupulous, against which they 
are not permitted to act, is not the origin of their ridicu- 
lous fears of sinning, but it brings before them forcibly the 
knowledge of their duty to submit in obedience to spiritual 
directors. This authority is truly divine, since Christ has 
promised His priests: ^^ He that heareth you heareth Me: 



Universal Remedy for Scruples, 291 

and he that despiseth you despiseth Me/^ ^ The scrupulous 
soul who, despite her anguish, follows the advice of her 
director, obeys God Himself; and who would dare to say 
that in obeying God one acts against conscience ? He, on 
the contrary, who prefers self-judgment to obedience, fol- 
lows his own inclinations, and pursues a way equally dan- 
gerous and foolish against the authority of God. ^^He 
who would be his own teacher, ^^ says St. Bernard, ^''be- 
comes the pupil of a fool/^ 

1 Luke X. 16. 



CHAPTER V. 
Various Kinds of Scruples, and their Remedy. 




HE foregoing dissertation on scruples mighty in 
general, be considered all-sufficient; but we deem 
the matter so important as to require some words 
on each separate species. 

We shall strive to recall briefly some of the most usual 
and best known scruples; for it is not possible to follow 
all such wandering imaginations. Besides, it is our inten- 
tion to confine these remarks to the most important only. 

I. Scruples about Former Co:n^fessioks. — Has the 
confessor reason to believe that the previous confessions 
were valid ? Has a general confession already repaired the 
defects of past confessions ? Has the general confession 
been repeated even many times ? If so, there must be no 
question of further repetitions. 

The belief that justification depends upon the exactness 
of our accusation is an error. The detailed confession of 
our sins wipes them out as little as the reckoning of a debt 
cancels it. It is unquestionably necessary that the penitent 
accuse himself of all that burdens his conscience. But by 
this self -accusation he does nothing more than acknowledge 
himself a debtor. Whoever reposes all his confidence in 
the minute accusation of sins is unconscious of the great- 
ness of his insolvency. The blood of the unspotted Lamb 
of God is our indemnity, our justification. In Jesus Christ 
alone we hope; and the sinner does little toward his salva- 
tion by reiterating his acknowledgment of sinfulness, arid 
expecting more from his own memory than from the saving 
death of the Lord. 

292 



Various Kinds of Scrtiples, and their Remedy, 293 

The constant repetition of confessions^ then, is not only 
useless, but also dangerous. 

It is dangerous, first, because the long examination pre- 
ceding the confession brings up before a lively imagination 
pictures that may be the occasion of new sins and tempta- 
tions. It is calculated to revive the remembrance of cer- 
tain sins that should forever be forgotten. Thus the best 
remedies frequently bring death to the sick when taken in- 
discreetly or unseasonably. Explanations often most dan- 
gerous, and which some desire constantly to repeat, were 
not necessary even in the first confession; and now there 
should be still less question of them. 

In the second place, the continual repetition of confes- 
sions perplexes the scrupulous soul, since it furnishes the 
imagination with nourishment and the mind with new sub- 
jects of torment, to which we have already seen more than 
one soul succumb. A scrupulous soul eagerly grasps at a 
general confession; but when will she end it ? There have 
been instances in which such a confession has lasted a 
whole year when the confessor had to bring all his courage 
and determination to bear in order to effect a satisfactory 
termination. And what came of it ? In what did it re- 
sult ? In more difi&culties and disquiet than before. All 
has not been told, matters have not been explained as they 
are, important circumstances have been omitted, certain 
sins must be repeated. Suppose the confessor is weak 
enough to permit it, then new trials arise, the penitent has 
had no contrition; fresh embarrassment ! How shall one 
extricate himself from such a labyrinth ? 

11. Scruples of Ordinary Coxfessioks. — Some souls 
are at peace in regard to the past, but the present is for 
them an exhaustless source of trouble. Accordiug to their 
ideas they are never clear enough in confession; they are 
always ready to repeat their sins; they torture their mem- 
ory not to omit anything. Some new point is always re- 
curring to them >ibout which th^y must interrupt the con- 
fessor^s instructions. It presents itself even during the 



294 Scrtiples. 

absolution, and rouses fresh anxiety. It leaves them no 
peace at the Lord's Table, and impels them afterward to re- 
turn to the confessional, not from necessity, but only from 
a desire to relieve their anxiety. They have so often 
yielded to this, that now it entirely rules them. 

Such trifling is unworthy our holy religion, and it gen- 
erally proceeds from an imperfect knowledge of it. There 
is a time for the examination of conscience, another for the 
confession of sins; a time for humiliation and docile atten- 
tion to the admonitions of the confessor; and, finally, a 
time for performing the penance imposed, and another for 
thanksgiving after the grace of absolution. These periods 
should not be confounded one with the other. Things 
should be done systematically. The fruit of one action is 
lost by busying one's self inopportunely with another. 

The penitent must accustom himself to make a clear, 
decided, and concise accusation, after which he should 
think of nothing but of what the confessor is telling him, 
and of preparing for the devout reception of absolution. 
This over, no further accusations are to be made. The 
faults of even the just are so multiplied that they could 
never be enumerated in detail. The most important of 
these details are often hidden from their gaze, so that the 
fault appears quite different in the eyes of God from what 
it does in their own. The validity of confession depends 
neither on the degree of self-knowledge, — always limited, — 
nor on the retentiveness of memory, but upon uprightness 
of heart and sincerity of sorrow. To these important and 
essential points one must chiefly attend.. The Lord God 
Himself makes little account of those small faults that 
would have been confessed had they not escaped the mem- 
ory either in the examination of conscience or even in the 
act of accusation, and which may easily be mentioned at 
another time. 

On this subject St. Francis de Sales says: ^*^One must 
not be alarmed when in confession he cannot remember all 
his faults ; for it is not conceivable that one who frequently 



Variotis Kinds of Scrttples, and their Remedy, 295 

examines his conscience should forget a grievous sin. He 
must also not be so trifling as to wish to confess every little 
imperfection. An act of humility, a pious ejaculation, suf- 
fices for this without confession. . . . You must not be 
too anxious to tell everything, to rnn after your superior, 
to make much ado over the trifles that annoy you, and 
that will, perhaps, have passed in a quarter of an hour. 
You must learn to bear such things courageously. We 
cannot get rid of them at once ; for they are, in general, 
the consequences of our imperfect nature. That your will, 
feelings, and desires are so fickle ; that }^ou are at one time 
moody, at another cheerful ; that you are pleased or dis- 
pleased in speaking or in keeping silence, and a thousand 
similar occurrences, — are matters to which we are naturally 
prone, and to which we must remain subject as long as this 
transitory life endures. ... It is not necessary to accuse 
ourselves in confession of the little thoughts that like gnats 
. swarm about us, or of the disgust and aversion we experi- 
ence in the observance of our vows and devotional exercises. 
We are not obliged to include them in our confessions ; for 
all these things are not sins, but only disagreeable and bur- 
densome difiiculties. ... The time after confession is not 
to be employed in reflecting Avhether everything has been 
rightly expressed. The penitent should rather remain 
peacefully near the dear Lord with whom he is again 
reconciled, and thank Him for His great mercy. Let not 
w^hat you may have forgotten disturb you. ... Do not 
torment yourself because you have failed to discover all 
your little faults in order to confess them ; for you fre- 
quently fall without even perceiving it. Besides, do not 
the Holy Scriptures say that the just man sees or feels that 
he daily falls not only seven times, but seven times seven? 
And yet he rises again without stopping to notice either his 
fall or his rise. Be not, therefore, solicitous, but go on 
declaring honestly and humbly what you have remarked. 
What escapes your memory leave to the sweet mercy of Him 
whose outstretched hand supports those that fall without 



296 Scruples. 

malice^ in order that they may not hurt themselves ; and 
who so gently and promptly sets them on theh^ feet again 
that they neither observe their fall nor their rise. " 

To this salutary teaching of a great saint we add the 
opinion of a grave theologian. ^ In answer to the question 
as to whether a scrupulous soul^ by not confessing certain 
sins, of the lightness or grievousness of which she is 
ignorant^ or because she is doubtful as to whether or not 
she has already confessed them^ would run the risk of 
really committing grievous sin by not fully explaining mat- 
ters in her confession^ he says that she would not thereby 
render herself guilty^ for the scrupulous are not bound to 
such exactitude^ since such an obligation would evidently 
keep them in a state of the most painful anxiety and cruel 
interior torture. Still greater would be the prejudice done 
the soul if other and graver spiritual trials pressed heavily 
upon the mind. These latter^ according to all theologians, 
are quite sufficient to dispense from such exactitude. 

Collet adds : ^^ Confession Avas not instituted to torture 
tlie conscience^ but to set it at peace. Hence the scrupu- 
lous must despise all inquietude regarding the validity 
of confession and the exactitude of examination. They 
should simply practise that blind obedience which is the 
most efficacious remedy for scruples. ^^ 

One word in conclusion on a few special circumstances 
connected with scruples. Anxious souls sometimes imagine 
that they must contrive to relate in the confessional the 
whole matter of their accusation. They go into the 
minutest details, whilst it is sufficient merely to mention 
the sin. When there is question of thoughts, which are 
often only temptations — and in this case one is not obliged 
even to speak of them — the scrupulous think they must^f ully 
explain them ; they must describe everything, however im- 
modest, exaggerated, or impossible, that an excited imagi- 
nation can picture. They fancy also that they must make 
the confessor see, as in a panorama, all that passes within 

1 Re;^inald, De Prudentia Confcssarii, Lib. II. s. 131. 



Variotts Kinds ofScrtcples, and their Remedy, 297 

them ; and since the impossibility to do so^ as well as a sense 
of shame^ revolts against these imaginary obligations^ they 
regard their confession as incomplete. The more they say^ 
the more, according to their ideas, remains to be said ; and 
yet there is in reality nothing easier than the accusation of 
such sinful thoughts. The penitent should simply mention 
what nrtue has been violated, and only in some very ex- 
treme cases is it needful to add one w^ord upon the particu- 
lar tendency of these thoughts, namely, if it changes the 
nature of the sin. Then he says whether or not he has 
really consented. If in doubt about the consent, it suf- 
fices to mention this doubt in general ; as for instance: "\ 
know not for certain whether I yielded or not to this or 
that evil thought. I fear that I was negligent in banishing 
it.^^ In such cases, indeed, perfect silence on the point 
may be maintained — a course very advisable if the penitent 
is scrupulous. Anything more is superfluous, especially in 
the case of holy purity, where endless explanations are more 
dangerous than useful, since they recall the temptation with 
double peril. The above are just principles. How far re- 
mote are they from the erroneous ideas of a scrupulous 
conscience ! And how much sweeter and easier is the yoke 
of the Lord than that which man, in his littleness, imposes 
upon himself ! 

We give here three instructions, which if followed may 
prevent many scruples. 

First. The penitent that has harbored feelings against his 
confessor, or who has made him the subject of unfavor- 
able criticism, complaints, murmurs, evil speaking, and the 
like, is not obliged in his accusation to say that the con- 
fessor was the subject of them. It is enough to confess the 
faults in general, without naming the person. The same 
holds good in the case of any aversion or natural affection 
that one may feel for the father-confessor. 

Secondly. The penitent can say to his confessor regard- 
ing the neighbor everything that the former ouglit to know, 
in order that he may be able to solve the difficulties, to 



298 Scruples. 

advise^ and to console. The seal of confession protects tlie 
good name of tlie party concerned. 

Thirdly. A lie in confession renders the sacrament in- 
valid only when the penitent thereby conceals what he is 
bounds under pain of mortal sin^ to confess. Except in 
this case^ one is not bound to include in his next confession 
this lie^ told in the preceding one. This rule applies to 
other venial sins that one may commit even in the con- 
fessional, such as suspicions, murmurings, impatience with 
the confessor^s directions, and the like. 

III. Scruples ox Sincerity of Cojs^tritiois^. — Good 
Resolutions, — Certain souls are particularly solicitous about 
the essential points of the Holy Sacrament of Penance. 
They think they accuse themselves without true sorrow and 
a sincere resolution of amendment, because they perceive 
no decided change in their life, and continue to bring the 
same faults to confession. Such souls must know that their 
conclusion would be just were there question of dealing 
with crime ; but of that there is here no mention, since we 
are dealing with scruples. 

The sorrow of the just for daily faults may be deep 
and true without its perfectly curing souls of their weak- 
ness. God knows the desires of His faithful children. He 
hears them, but only at the right time. It is more im- 
portant for God-loving souls to be well-grounded in hu- 
mility than to be freed from defects ; therefore the dear 
God often leaves them for a long time struggling in vain^ 
merely that they may become truly humble. The con- 
trition of the righteous for their faults cannot be measured 
according to the same rule as that of great sinners for their 
crimes. The faults of the former do not affect the 
essence of the Christian life. JSTay, through the Divine 
Goodness they not unfrequently become the occasion of 
the most sublime virtues, and a protection against great 
dangers. One would form an erroneous judgment were he 
to conclude from relapses into faults that he loved them, or 
that his repentance was insincere. St. Francis de Sales 



Varzotcs Kinds of Scruples y and their Remedy, 299 

says on this point : ^^God lias been pleased on some occa- 
sions to perfect sinners all at once^ as St. Mary Magdalen, 
who in an instant, from an outcast, a corrupt creature, 
became a pure, untroubled well-spring of perfection. But 
in the disciples the Lord left after conversion many traces 
of former evil inclinations, and this was for tlieir real 
good. We confine ourselves to St. Peter, who after his 
first call stumbled more than once, and by his threefold 
denial at last fell miserably. 

^^ A soul that, after a long slavery to passion, should be- 
come in a moment perfect master of it, would be in great 
danger of falling into pride and vanity. We must proceed 
gradually, step by step, to victory. The saints spent decades 
of years in acquiring such conquests. Be kind, then, and 
have patience with all, but above all with yourself. 

^^You complain that, in spite of your desire for perfec- 
tion and the ]3ure love of God, you still perceive imperfec- 
tions in yourself. We reply, that in this life we can never 
quite divest ourselves of self. We must continue to bear it 
about with us till God takes us to heaven. As long as we 
must drag the burden of self, we are dragging something 
very worthless. Patience, then ! You cannot lay aside in 
one day all the bad habits acquired by a long course of 
spiritual negligence. Fix your eyes upon God, and then 
turn them upon yourself. You will never behold Him apart 
from His goodness, nor yourself destitute of misery, which 
you will thus look upon as the object of the divine goodness 
and mercy. ^^ 

Penelon says : ^^ Formerly you were wanting in light to 
discern the emotions of your perverse nature, which are 
now so plain to you. The more light, the better one sees 
that he is worse than he thought; but, for all that, he 
must not be discouraged. You are not worse than you 
formerly were : on the contrary, you are much better. But 
as your evils decrease, the light that discovers them in- 
creases. '^ 

Let what has been said reassure the doubting of the sin- 



300 Scruples. 

cerity of their contrition, although they may relapse into 
faults of frailty. And now, a word to those that fear for 
the sincerity of their sorrow, since they do not experience 
sentiments of grief so lively as those that are felt upon the 
loss of relatives or property. Such souls for long hours 
seek to awaken this feeling, but generally without success. 
And then, what anguish of heart in receiving absolution ! 
We cannot better advise such souls than by telling them 
to reflect upon the following words of St. Francis de 
Sales : 

^^You desire to know, ^^ says he, ^^ how in a short time 
you can make a good act of contrition. I tell you for this 
no time is necessary. You have but to prostrate yourself 
in the spirit of humility and sorrow before the Lord for 
the offences against Him. In God^s eyes you are capable of 
much, if you are capable only of willing. You already 
have contrition in desire. You do not, indeed, feel it, but 
neither do you see nor feel the fire under the ashes, although 
it is there. ^^ 

IV. Scruples about Devotions or OBLiGATioi^. — 
The devotions to which duty binds are to many the cause 
of a thousand anxieties, whilst those they have freely chosen 
themselves are often better performed and with much less 
disquietude. The i^eason of this is, that the soul is not 
tormented in the latter case by the fear of performing them 
badly. 

Men, in every other respect intelligent and enlightened, 
often allow themselves to be ruled by this excessive fear. 
They become a burden to themselves and useless to others, 
because they have acquired the unhappy custom of fearing 
in everything and of finding difficulties in all the duties of 
their state. 

The necessary intention is to many an inexhaustible source 
of scruples. For example, they think they have not per- 
formed the penance imposed by the priest, unless they have 
previously spent a quarter of an hour, — what do we say? — 
an hour, and even more, protesting in all conceivable forms 



Various Kinds of Scrtiples, and their Remedy. 301 

that they now really wish to perform the penance imposed 
by the confessor on this occasion, for this purpose, etc., 
and that they assuredly had no other intention in it I If 
these poor, tormented souls would say simply the prayers 
prescribed, or read the chapter given them, without all these 
ludicrous precautions, and also without the least concern 
about their intention, the rigid intention would certainly 
not be wanting, and they would more perfectly, more easily, 
correspond to that of the confessor. 

It is very important that, when undertaking the direction 
of a soul, the confessor should energetically combat such 
weaknesses in the penitent ; for it might lead to fatal con- 
sequences, and indeed to it many have sacrificed sound 
reason. 

Such scrupulous souls should never be alloAved to repeat 
their prayers of obligation — for instance, the Divine Office. 
Disobedience in this point is a very great fault. Nothing 
so exposes us to distractions as the thought that we may 
repeat our prayers after having said them badly. Let such 
a practice be begun, and it will soon become habitual, since 
the repetition will be attended by no better success than the 
first attempts. Thus the prayers that can never be finished 
become at last an insupportable yoke, Avhich exaggerated 
punctiliousness will end in throwing off altogether. 

No man can entirely avoid distractions in this life ; but 
they can injure our prayer only when they are voluntary or 
neglected. The best means of overcoming them is to pay 
no attention to them, but to revert quickly to our former 
train of thought, without inquiring how or by what we were 
for some moments diverted from it. The most importunate 
distractions, when displeasing to the soul, become prayer. 
To repeat or omit devotions in consequence of distractions 
means to yield to them. 

St. Teresa herself admitted that frequently she was unable 
to finish a Credo without distractions. We also must sub- 
mit humbly to our fate. We must not exact more of our- 
selves than does God, to whom our humility and obedience 



302 Scruples. 

t 

are a thousand times more pleasing than our vain efforts to 

reach an unattainable end. 

V. Scruples about Motives of Well-doikg. — From 
actions let us proceed to motiyes^, on whose account so many 
are troubled. They know^ on the one hand, that the holi- 
ness of an action depends upon purity of intention ; tod on 
the other, they fear that all they do is tainted with secret 
pride, human views, or motives of vanity. 

Undoubtedly every good action should be vivified by tlie 
love of God and the desire to please Him. The fear that 
the depravity of our heart should mingle with our good 
works and rob them of their merit is also reasonable. An 
intrinsic part of devotion consists in this holy fear, which is 
inseparable from love. There . is certainly no more secure 
means of determining whether an action is done from pure 
love, or whetlier other motives are mixed with it. The 
heart is unfathomable, unknown to ourselves ; but it would 
not be so were we sure of its love. We should know 
^^ whether we are worthy of love or hatred ^^ ^ if we knew 
what kind of love rules and directs us. We could then do 
what St. Paul would not venture to do, namely, judge our- 
selves.^ 

But it is precisely the uncertainty that conceals from us 
the interior depths of our being which should furnish the 
best consolation to those who torture themselves about their 
imaginary bad intentions. AVhence know you that your 
actions do not proceed from the grace of Jesus Christ? 
Has He given you a special sign by which to recognize its 
effects in you? May not one deceive himself in this way, 
as Avell from false humility as from presumption? Can 
you distinguish exactly the gifts of God from those that 
spring from self, and thus discover the extent of your 
misery ? Fear you not to abuse God's grace in ascribing 
the good which it aids you to accomplish to the malice 
of the Evil One? And you who are so much troubled lest 

1 Eccles. ix. 1. 2 1 Cor. iv. 3-5. 



Var totes Kinds of Scruples, and tJim^ Remedy, 30 



J 



pride should taint your works^ — do you not deem it pride 
when^ instead of being grateful to God, you complain ? 

But such persons will answer: ^^How can we conceal 
from ourselves that vanity and other evil motives corrupt 
most of our good works^ since we are sensibly alive to their 
impression? These impure motives besiege us! They 
mingle in all we do^ and^ like shadows, follow us every- 
where. In spite of all our efforts, we cannot cast them off/^ 

You take pains to be freed from them — you are troubled 
that your efforts are not crowned with the desired success? 
Ah, then, you are not so much to be pitied as you imagine. 
That you are troubled is a good sign. We fear not for you, 
since you are watchful. 

One more question: ^^Do you never perform any good 
work in silence? Do you always seek witnesses? Can you 
never be silent about an alms, a prayer, or a mortification?^^ 
You answer: ^^It is my greatest consolation to do good 
sscretly, for then pride has to sacrifice what publicity would 
have granted it. that we might live without witnesses I 
Then we should be in peace, or at least should easily con- 
quer our enemies. '^ 

You now see that appearances are not, as you thought, 
entirely against you. You have given evidence that you 
flee temptation, you love concealment, and that at heart 
you are humble, or at least desire to be so. 

Concerning the importunate attacks of pride, we are not 
anxious for their cessation. God is the master of them, and 
He has not promised that they should ever cease. He stands 
by, to assist in the combat ; but the struggle Avill last as 
long as it pleases Him, and very often even to the end of 
life. 

Temptation must not, however, be confounded with sin. 
Pride surrounds us on all sides. But it is not on this ac- 
count in our heart, which, despite of the fierce and per- 
severing attacks of the enemy, remains closed. If it does 
not yield to the impressions that pride makes upon the 



304 Scruples, 

imagination^ the noise is outside only^ and conscience pre- 
serves its purity. 

A very fitting comparison will illustrate this fact. Your 
shadoAV follows you everywhere^ and yet it is no part of your 
person. It imitates all your movements and actions, though 
it is not the cause of them. You cannot escape from it or 
chase it away ; and yet it does you no harm. It is exactly 
the same with the importunate attacks of pride. Contrary 
to our will, it follows us everywhere, anxious for as great a 
share as possible in all our intentions and actions ; but so 
long as we refuse our consent, its importunity cannot affect 
us. Instead of losing time in fighting flitting shadows 
that escape our blows, or in vain efforts to flee from the 
demon of pride, we have only to refuse these admittance 
into our heart, and keep our glance flxed on Jesus Christ, 
who alone has power to conquer. 

The foregoing instructions are comprised in the import- 
ant admonitions of St. Ignatius to the scrupulous in his 
" Spiritual Exercises/^ He says : 

^^When a devout soul wishes to say or do anything that 
deviates neither from the 'customs of Holy Church nor the 
traditions of the Fathers, and which she considers calculated 
to promote the honor of God our Lord ; and the thought, 
or temptation comes from without (i.e. from the enemy) 
not to say or do it, because she might be guilty of vain 
complacency, or some other fault, let her raise her mind to 
her Lord and Creator, and if she sees that this word or 
action will tend to His honor, or, at least, not be contrary to 
it, let her do what is directly opposed to the tempter^s 
suggestions, saying with St. Bernard : ' I have not begun 
for you, nor shall I stop for you !^ ^^ 

VI. Scruples about Duties supposed to be Essen- 
tial. — Scruples founded on the foregoing captious argu- 
ment are the more difficult to cure when they relate to 
duties supposed essential, but which one has not had the 
courage to fulfil. Such scruples are, unquestionably, more 
torturing than most others. We cannot conceal from our- 



Various Kinds of Scruples, and their Remedy, 305 

selves^ on the one hand, the apparent duty ; and, on the 
other, Ave cannot resolve to comply Avith it. We then reason 
thus : "\ surely do not love God above all things. I can- 
not be pleasing to Him, I cannot save my soul if I do not 
change my frame of mind ; but of this there is little pros- 
pect.'' 

Many lines Avould not suffice to relate in detail all the 
obligations that some, with more ingenuity than perspicuity, 
impose upon themselves without, however, being able to 
fulfil them. It is the duty of the confessor to give these 
disquieted souls an insight into themselves, and to solve 
their doubts ; but they should submit everything to his 
judgment. They should never forget that what would 
often be a duty for persons possessed of interior peace, is 
not so for those who, from excessive fear, are to a certain 
extent deprived of the free use of their sonl's powers. They 
are incapable of complying properly with certain obligations; 
consequently, they are dispensed from them. This is the 
case, for example, in regard to fraternal correction ; for 
timorous or restless souls can scarcely comply properly with 
this injunction. They may, therefore, take silence as their 
rule when in doubt as to whether they should or should 
not administer such correction. 

VII. Scruples with respect to Hope, the Soul be- 

LIEYIXG HERSELF IX A BAD STATE. — "\ should gladly 

hide from m^yself my tepidity and cowardice,'' says many a 
soul sad unto death ; ^^but how can I deceive my own con- 
science, my own eyes ? My works witness against me, my 
life is passing in vain desires. I see the good I ought to 
do, and I do it not. I feel for it an interior, secret aver- 
sion that time does not diminish. My slothful, drowsy 
heart cannot awaken from its weakness and lassitude. I 
rise only to commit new faults. My will is not only weak, 
but absolutely bad, and I catch myself in repeated infidel- 
ities toward Grod whom, in a certain way, I try to deceive 
by my exterior, whilst my real sentiments are in total 
opposition to His Law. AU this fills me with doubt con- 
20 



3o6 Scruples. 

cerning my salvation^ and often deprives me of hope. I 
know very well that this unhappy feeling of despair does 
not remedy the evil, but that, on the contrary, it fills up 
its measure. But how can I resist it, since it is evidently 
founded on reality ? The Gospel holds no promises for a 
coward like me. It condemns relapses, and my life is a 
chain of them. It demands fruits of penance, and I pro- 
duce none. All the good of which I read bears testimony 
against me, because I am so far removed from what it 
teaches ; and although I still make my act of hope, yet I 
do not know whether my heart's sentiments correspond 
with the words I utter. ^^ 

We permit this desolate soul to pour out her sorrow. It 
relieves her, and consoling words more easily penetrate the 
heart that has discharged its bitterness. Now, however, 
we shall confront her with her own words ! 

Granting, we answer her, that your misery is as great as 
it appears to you, — yes, we shall even suppose it greater 
than you have represented, — do such sentiments portray 
one wanting in virtue, one that has no love for virtue ? Are 
not hunger and thirst for justice favorable signs ol salva- 
tion ? Are not the tears that even the most just shed over 
themselves a proof that justice is not perfect in this life ? 

In what, then, do your faults consist ? They rank among 
those that even the just cannot avoid. Good ! Now, what 
would you think of yourself if you committed.no faults at 
all? if your pious desires were all at once crowned with 
success? if you feel so drawn to good that its practice cost 
you no effort ? if you were always as patient and gentle as 
you would desire to be? if, in a word, you suddenly became 
so perfect as to be a subject of astonishment to others and 
amazement to yourself ? 

^^Ah V^ you answer, '^I should tremble at such a state. 
If God did not give me the humility and gratitude of the 
blessed spirits, I should importune Him to reserve for me 
till tlie next life a perfection of which the present is un- 



Vai'ioics Kinds of Scritples, and their Remedy, 307 

worthy ; for its glare would certainly dazzle me more quickly 
than it did the fallen angels and our first parents/' 

You see, therefore, how necessary humiliation is to humil- 
ity. Do not, then, consider the imperfections God leaves 
you as a sign of His anger, but as a proof of His loving 
designs over you. By them He will make your cure cer- 
tain, and preserve your virtue from the inroads of pride. 

Bewail your misery, but thank God that you know it and 
feel it ; for it might have been coupled with blindness and 
hardness of heart. His mercy has not left you like so many 
others in blind indifference. Eecognize your own due in 
the punishment of others, and be very grateful that the 
goodness of God has preserved you from the number of 
those who live in peace and presumption in their sins. 

Do not ruminate on what is lacking to you ; rather ad- 
mire the goodness of God in conferring so many graces and 
benefits on one so unworthy. With the Canaanite woman 
gather the crumbs that fall from the table of the children 
of God, instead of complaining that you are not like them 
seated at the table. Like Kuth, be satisfied with gteaning, 
and murmur not that you are prohibited to gather at will. 
Your complaints are secret murmurs that place obstacles 
to the fulfilment of your good desires. Become more grate- 
ful and humble, and in similar proportion you will increase 
in spiritual riches. You have been accustomed to regard 
only your wants and not your unworthiness. Learn hence- 
forth to unite both. You are, indeed, in want of many 
things, but nothing is due you. You should desire all 
and hope for all ; but without Jesus Christ you have ho 
right to anything. 

You are inconsolable that your will for good is so slug- 
gish, your heart so wanting in straightforwardness and sin- 
cerity before God, whilst you perceive in yourself a sort of 
double-mindedness and falsehood that seem to give the lie 
to your good works. But do you not know that your good- 
will comes from the grace of Jesus Christ, and that Christ 
is our Redeemer chiefly because He delivers us from the per- 



3o8 Scr7iples, 

versity of our own will ? Can you give Him anything that 
you have not received from Him? Have you sought first 
your Saviour, and loved Him first ? You see all that He 
has done in you. AVhy do you not hope that He will per- 
fect His work ? In His goodness He began it when you did 
not even desire it ; will He now desist when you so ardently 
implore Him to supply what is wanting ? Do you not know 
that He Himself inspires your prayers, that He is the cause 
of your sighs ? Hoav can you think that He despises His 
own gifts, that He does not hear your prayers, that He is 
indifferent to your tears? 

Your slothful, tepid life saddens you. But do you con- 
sider it a good remedy to allow hope, the fountain source 
of fervor, to sink ? Does one advance quickly when he runs 
haphazard, or says to himself that every step is useless? 
Does one set his heart upon what he considers the property 
of another, or, at least, intended for another? Can he 
retain sufficient strength to reach the term, when he is pre- 
possessed by the idea that he will never arrive at it? 
Hope alone grasps at a good, looks upon it as intended for 
itself, and takes all possible measures to attain it. Let 
hope, therefore, be something living and active within you, 
and you will nerve yourself to overcome your sluggish 
nature. 

As a last plank for discouragement, you allege that you 
are wanting in fervor of penance. But from what has been 
said, you should be convinced that it is only from the want 
of hope and confidence that you feel so little strength to 
lead a penitential life. Patience in affliction, and the desire 
to suffer, to be crucified with Christ, spring from the well- 
founded expectation of eternal goods, and from the perfect 
conviction that if we suffer with Christ we shall be glorified 
with Him. Hence there is no better remedy for all your 
temptations than confidence. 

VIII. Scruples that make us see in" eyerythi:n"g a 
PuN"iSHMEXT FROM GoD. — Somc souls regard every adver- 
sity that happens to them as a punishment from Divine 



Various Kinds of Scruples, and tJieir Remedy. 309 

Providence. Such a yiew renders patience in suffering 
more difficult, and deprives them of the greatest advan- 
tages of the Cross. 

Such souls should reflect that, during this life everything 
may be rendered conducive to salvation. If God takes from 
us something that we considered useful to our perfection, 
He does it only to lead us thereto by a more secure way. 
^Nothing is more necessary to us here below than obedience 
to His divine dispensations, nothing more truly beneficial 
than His grace. We do not lose, on the contrary, we gain 
a great deal when God Himself takes the place of those of 
whom He deprives us. Were we alone in the world with 
Him, Ave should possess in His goodness an inexhaustible 
source of strength. 

No one knows whether or not he belongs to the number 
of the predestined ; but all are commanded to hope it, and 
to believe that the various designs of Providence tend to 
what is best for us. The Lord does nothing that is not for 
the salvation of the elect. For them alone does the w^orld 
exist, and it shall be destroyed when the last of the elect shall 
have attained perfection. Verily, if the whole world were 
subjected to a universal upheaval, that general destruction 
of existing things would have for its object only the greater 
good of the elect. 

Timid, or imperfectly instructed souls, very frequently 
misunderstand the assertion that there is a certain measure 
of grace beyond which God grants no more. If, therefore, 
they experience new difficulties in the practice of virtue, or 
think they have fallen into a more considerable fault, they 
fancy they belong to the number of those to whom only 
limited graces are imparted, and that they can hope for no 
more. 

This interpretation of the doctrine of the measure of 
grace is utterly false. Holy Scripture bids the sinner hope 
till his last breath. The Church robs no soul of this 
precious gift. She is convinced that the dying are never 
exhorted to penance in vain, although death-bed conver- 



3 1 o Scrtcples, 

sions are often doubtful. The time of patience and mercy 
ends for us only with our last breathy and until then we 
must never consider the source of grace closed. Just as 
little dare one regard the foregoing teaching as general 
maxims of faith^ or apply them to individual souls ; for it 
is evident that, even if the general principle be true, yet 
it would always be presumptuous, and a fault against 
Christian hope to apply them with certainty to one's self or 
others. 

IX. Scruples that make us consider Little Faults 
a:^^ occasion of greater ones. — Some anxious souls al- 
ways see in their little faults occasions of greater ones. 
They persuade themselves that God punishes them by per- 
mitting them to fall into greater sins. They usually support 
this assertion upon Holy Scripture, in which they read that 
less faults lead to greater, that one imperceptibly falls into 
the latter by neglecting the former, and that imperfections 
to which little attention is paid may often lead to the gra- 
vest faults. 

This, rightly understood, is true ; but one goes too far in 
asserting that trifling faults of frailty are the proximate oc- 
casions of great sins. 

The Holy Scriptures nowhere say that faults of weakness 
are punished by the commission of more considerable sins. 
If such were true, what would become of the just man, al- 
though he falls seven times a day? Does he not persevere 
in his righteousness ? Has not the Beloved Disciple said, 
in the name of all : ''If we say that we have no sin, we de- 
ceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess 
our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, 
and to cleanse us from all iniquity. ^^ ' God's threats refer 
only to the despising of little faults : ''He that contemneth 
small things shall fall by little and little I'' says the Wise 
Man.' Indifference will be punished, for it is allied to 
pride. Impenitence excites the anger of God ; for it shows 
contempt of His mercy, which is not invoked, as also of 

I I John i. 8, 8 Ecclus, xix. 1. 



Variotis Kmds of Scrtiples, and their Remedy, 3 1 1 

His justice^ which the sinner neglects to appease. On the 
contrary^ the Holy Scriptures furnish the most consoling 
promises for the humble and faithful soul wliose weakness 
impels her to greater watchfulness, and who neither loves 
nor excuses her faults of omission or imj)etuosity. This is 
the correct interpretation of the foregoing text, which, 
falsely understood, is the source of many scruples. 

But let us suppose that the faults which occasion such 
scruples are not merely of inadvertence, that the heart 
clings to them, that they are not avoided as they should 
be, nor sufficiently atoned by humble penance. In spite of 
all this, one would commit an error in considering them as 
proximate, that is ordinary and inevitable occasions of trans- 
gressions. No part of Holy Scripture or tradition tells us 
this. To make such an assertion would be to anticipate the 
decrees of the Almighty, which we are not allov/ed to 
fathom. If this were true, the most pure, the most inno- 
cent souls might be cast into despair ; for they, above all 
others, judge their faults most severely, in the fear that 
they are wilful or not sufficiently effaced by heartfelt sorrow. 

It is precisely to such discouragement that the enemy 
wishes to lead souls, showing them in a magnifying glass 
their fault and its consequences. So long as they are at 
peace he does not venture to present to them manifest evil ; 
but if he succeeds in disturbing them, after some imperfec- 
tion, he can attack them more boldly. He knows full well 
that confidence in the divine assistance and the humble con- 
viction that God will not cast them away for slight negligences 
and sins, will serve as a protection against his assaults ; 
hence, he endeavors to deprive souls of such sentiments by 
recalling to their mmd all the denunciations they have ever 
heard against negligence and tepidity. They become there- 
by their own tempters ; and by looking upon their damna- 
tion as inevitable, actually cast themselves into the abyss. 

This hellish snare seems, indeed, so openly laid as to be 
easily detected-*; nevertheless, as experience sbows, it often 
proves dangerous. Souls that would have been invulner- 



o 



1 2 Scrttples. 



able kacl tliey preserved confidence in God^s help, are often 
wounded and sometimes brought low, by falsely imagining 
that little faults in the beginning have caused them to be 
abandoned by God. They would have preserved with holy 
jealousy the precious treasure of innocence, had they but 
known that its possession was still theirs. Every means 
must be employed to put an end to such scruples ; for they 
degenerate into temptations, and through vain fear, lead to 
great sins. 

X. Scruples with regard to Faith.— Does one 
REALLY believe OR NOT? — Our faith should be active 
and living. Supernaturally, it should be to us what the 
senses are to the things around us. St. Paul calls it: '^^The 
substance of things to be hoped for, the evidence of things 
that appear not. "^ ^ Anxious souls not finding their faith 
possessed of these elevated qualities, doubt as to whether 
they believe or not. If, in addition, they read in the Epistle 
of the same Apostle that the faith of Moses was so great as 
to make the invisible God present and visible to him, they 
become sad and discouraged because they are far from ex- 
periencing anything similar. Such souls will find consola- 
tion in the following instruction : 

First. Faith can be real and even very strong, though 
unaccompanied by any lively feeling, not even by the con- 
sciousness of its possession. 

Secondly. It is with regard to faith, as well as to every 
other virtue, desirable that, in addition to its possession, 
one should have an actual perception of it ; for this sup- 
ports the soul in difficulties, consoles her in suflEering, raises 
her above the purely sensual, and fills her with holy joy. 

Thirdly. If the sentiment of faith is weak, or even ap- 
pears to be entirely extinct, the soul must not be disturbed ; 
for spiritual dryness produces tepidity, strengthens tempta- 
tion, and impels the soul to seek in exterior things the con- 
solation of which she is interiorly deprived. Still let sorrow 

1 Hebrews xi. 1. 



Various Kinds of Scrtiples, and their Remedy, 3 1 3 

be calm^ let it never disturb the souFs peace. God often 
permits this trial for our good. 

Fourthly. The lively sentiment of faith is not regained 
by disquiet and agitation, still less by useless exertions that 
wear out body and mind. Humility, prayer, punctual ful- 
filment of duty, and the sacrifice of all human consolation 
alone can restore and strengthen it. 

Fifthly. God, for reasons well known to Himself, leaves 
us in spiritual darkness ; therefore, we should humble our- 
selves without disquiet. Fidelity in this state is a great 
evidence that God, though concealing His presence and His 
gifts, dwells in the heart by faith or the ruling of His Holy 
Spirit. 

Sixthly. It is extremely important to devote but little 
attention to the loss or acquisition of what can be given or 
withdrawn without detriment to our true sentiments. The 
essence of piety does not consist in these unstable things 
which are independent of our will. Be grateful when you 
possess them ; humble when you lose them ; but, at the 
same time, and in spite of the unevenness of the way, seek 
always to advance steadily in virtue. 

Seventhly. It is extremely dangerous to judge the state 
of one^s soul by signs that may have a double significance, 
or that do not bear directly on the immediate relations of 
faith and love. Such judgments lead only to presumption 
or discouragement ; and they are, for the most part, with- 
out foundation. 

Eighthly. Nothing is more opposed to the spirit of faith 
than that longing after certainty ; that desire' to feel, to 
experience ; that grasping, as it were, everything with one's 
hands. This would be to found religion upon experience 
and sensible perceptions, to require of God an account of 
His doings, to ask Him to spread out before us the treasures 
of His grace, and to make known to us the amount of His 
riches. It means that, if God does not give us in the pres- 
ent sensible feeling as a pledge of the reward in store for 
us, we will withdraw our confidence in His word and 



314 Scruples. 

promises. And^ finally^ it means submission to His direc- 
tion only on condition that He appoint us judges of His 
proceedings. 

All that has just been said may be given in answer to 
those who complain of the want of sensible feeling ; and 
who think that they have no faith, because it is for a time 
concealed in the depths of their heart, though, after all, its 
root may there be found. 

To labor in the darkness of night, in which everything 
seems to vanish from us, is, on the contrary, the sign of 
firm, solid, and meritorious faith. ^^ Because thou hast 
seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed : blessed are they 
that have not seen and have believed I^^ ' But that faith 
dwells and acts in these anxious souls, is shown in their 
life, proved by the thousand actions they daily perform in 
obedience to the Divine Law, and which can have no other 
source than faith. Their anxiety is itself the best evidence 
of this ; for it would not be conceivable that religion could 
be in their eyes a mere fable. 

For the rest, the foregoing principles may be applied to 
a much wider field. They are a remedy for the scruples of 
all who believe themselves destitute of certain necessary vir- 
tues, because their feelings are contrary to their desires. 

XI. Scruples about Temptations agaixst Faith. — 
Besides those enumerated above, there is another species of 
scruple concerning faith. It consists in thoughts and 
doubts purely indeliberate, for the most part confused and 
uncertain ; but which likewise very often openly and di- 
rectly attack faith in its entirety, or in its individual articles. 

This temptation troubles, and at the same time perplexes, 
anxious souls. They distinguish with difficulty how far the 
thought or doubt has gone. The impression of it remains, 
and they suspect secret unbelief to be the root of the temp- 
tation ; or, at least, they fear that these frequent and im- 
portunate attacks will, in the end, weaken their faith, " They 

I John XX. 29. 



Variotcs Kinds of ScrttpleSy and their Remedy, 3 1 5 

ask themselves wlietlier^ in these combats^ they always do 
their duty^ and if they will continue to do so in the future. 

To every soul thus tempted w^e reply : ^^AVe will be re- 
sponsible for the good and pious sentiments of your heart, 
and for the sincerity of your faith. We assure you that the 
storm rages only around you ; and by God^s grace it w^ill 
even serve to confirm you in faith/^ 

Such souls make far too much account of these attacks, 
more importunate than dangerous. By their excessive fear, 
they strengthen the thoughts from w^hich simple contempt 
would have freed them. God, by this temptation, merely 
wishes to admonish them to pray for humble, simple, child- 
like sentiments. If they do this they take from the devil 
all hope of success ; for how could faith be w^eakened by a 
temptation that is employed as a remedy against pride. 

These souls should never interrupt their occupations, 
still less their prayer, to combat and cast off such doubts 
against faith. Were they to do so they would fulfil the in- 
tention of the enemy, who tempts them only to disturb 
their devotions. " To such attacks no answer should be 
given V^ 

The sign of the cross on the forehead, mouth, and heart, 
is a pow^erful weapon against the enemy, and the name of 
Jesus puts him to flight. The mere thought of ChrisVs 
death. His victory over hell and unbelief, will suffice to 
restore peace to the soul. 

The tempted soul may also say from time to time : ^'^O 
my God, I believe I Help Thou my unbelief I Give me 
a faith more worthy of Thee ! Do Thou rectify rny imper- 
fect faith ! Increase faith in me ! Do Thou Thyself pre- 
serve in me the gift of faith ! Thy grace has made me 
believe. May it preserve to me this faith that overcomes 
the world, and the prince of this world !'^ They may say 
als.o : ''I unite myself to the faith of Holy Church. I 
assent to all that she believes. With my whole heart I 
acknowledge as true everything that has been revealed tp 
her/' 



3 1 6 Scruples. 

To despise temptations, and to divert the mind from 
them are the most effectual remedies against them. If one 
makes use of professions of faith, which should not be done 
frequently, the shortest and most simple are decidedly the 
best and most efficacious. "1 believe all that the Cliurch 
believes! Ask me no more/^ Above all, beware of con- 
tending with the fiend. One should guard against reply- 
ing to doubts ; for, in default of proper solutions, such a 
procedure might lead us still deeper into spiritual darkness 
— yea, even to perdition. 

The director should say to such timorous souls : " The 
Lord know^s the sincerity of your heart. He lieard and un- 
derstood you, even before your petition ascended to Him. 
He appears to sleep, and yet He is with you in your labor and 
fatigue. One word upon His awaking, and w4nd and waves 
will be calm. Attend more to Him than to the surging 
billows and the rolling of the fragile bark. With Him 
shipw^reck is^impossible I'^ 

XII. Scruples about Te:mptatioxs to Blasphemy. — 
If there is one attack more fearful than another, but one 
that nearly always remains extraneous to the will of the 
tempted, it is that of blasphemy. We need not here enter 
into detail concerning it. He that is visited by this heavy 
trial, knows best in what it consists ; and it would be 
dangerous to excite the imagination of others with pictures 
whose inherent vileness must needs produce a strong im- 
pression. 

The spirit of darkness is ever intent on making piety 
wearisome and hateful to some. Whils the leaves in peace 
those that follow their passions and live without thought of 
eternal salvation, he unceasingly endeavors to disturb those 
that seek to live in interior recollection and purity of heart. 

His most successful attacks are generally concealed, and 
they are such as best harmonize with our natural inclina- 
tions and the remains of the old man in us. Vanity, self- 
love, desire of earthly happiness, impurity, are the ordinary 
weapons he successfully uses. 



Variotcs Kinds ofScrtiples, and their Remedy, 3 1 7 

God does not always permit the adversary to employ 
against the just the cunning of the serpent. He often suffers 
him to make his attacks only amid the less dangerous roar- 
ing of the lion. The devil then spreads fear and confusion, 
though creating more noise than damage to the soul. lie 
displays his deformity too openly ; consequently, his temp- 
tations bear on their front the name of godlessness and 
blasphemy. 

God then establishes the heart in security. He leaves to 
the enemy only the exterior fortress of the senses and 
imagination, and they serve him to no purpose. He closes 
to him the temple and sanctuary. He permits him to enter 
the courtyard only,— not, however, to reign therein, but that 
he may, by his profanation of it, excita men^s hatred against 
himself and show to them what a monster he is, to what 
abominations he impels, how frightful his company, to what 
terrible despair he is condemned, how^ powerless is his rage 
against God; and, finally, w4iat gratitude we ow^e Jesus Christ 
who by his death has rescued us from the lion^s jaws. 

Therefore, devout souls should not be concerned, still 
less discouraged, or think they are abandoned by God when 
attacked by thoughts of blasphemy, be these thoughts ap- 
parently ever so abominable, ever so degrading to God and 
the saints, or opposed to faith or purity. 

It is best for such souls to reflect as little as jDossible upon 
these involuntary pre-occupations, to pay no attention to 
them stiff less to protest energetically or vehemently against 
them. Here again, a contemptuous turning away from the 
thoughts, is the most efficacious remedy; for, according to 
Gerson : "^"^One overcomes temptations to blasphemy, as well 
as all others of thought, most easily by despising them, never 
reflecting on them, and turning the mind from them to oc- 
cupy it with other matters. It is dangerous to contend with 
them directly, or to oppose them violently. ^^ Souls sorely 
tempted in this way, may either seek distraction in cheering 
occupation, or entertain themselves with pious thoughts, 
sing Psalms or spiritual canticles, among which let them 



3i8 Scrtcples. 

choose those that awaken hope and love. Almsgivings also, 
has great power in driving away the spirit of darkness. 

XIII. Scruples upon Ambiguous Points suggested 
BY THE Imagination^. — We know not whether to attribute 
it to the Evil One, to a diseased imagination, or to both to- 
gether^ that sometimes spiritual reading and vocal prayers 
assume a double meaning : true and serious on the one 
hand ; comical and criminal on the other. 

If this phenomenon is of short duration, the soul is 
astonished by it though not disturbed. If it frequently 
returns, it exerts a saddening influence and the soul grows 
restless ; but if it becomes a custom, prayer and reading are 
abandoned as the cause. The victim of such temptations 
questions himself as -to whence proceeds this tendency of 
thought which even religion is not able to master. He be- 
comes solicitous about the state of his soul, and thinks that 
in himself lies the cause of so sinful a turn of mind. 

To act thus, is to pay far too much attention to such 
thoughts arid, worse still, it is to yield to a temptation 
which should be met with sovereign contempt. Indeed, 
such attacks of the Evil One should confirm in the soul a 
love for reading and prayer, as it proves how much the 
devil hates such exercises. During the temptation they 
should be performed with all the more fidelity and per- 
severance, even when apparently useless. We shouhJ at 
this time humble ourselves at the sight of the perversity 
and corruption of our imagination, acknowledging before 
God our powerlessness to bridle it, and recognizing in the 
trial a just punishment of the many and deliberate revolts 
of our will against His commands. 

AVhat is indeliberate is not sinful. Christ Himself says : 
^^ What does not come forth from the heart cannot sully the 
heart. ^^ Now, what man cannot prevent, is not deliberate. 
In the painful trial just spoken of, one ought to be par- 
ticularly intent on grounding himself in confidence in God 
and tranquillity of mind ; in studying how to preserve thes^ 



Various Kinds of Scruples, a7id their Remedy. 3 1 9 

precious treasures^ and in setting at nought the plans of the 
tempter. By so doing, the temptation will soon cease. 

XIV. Scruples concerning Christian Loye of the 
Neighbor. — The duties of Christian charity or love of the 
neighbor, are to certain souls an inexhaustible source of 
scruples. This arises from want of insight in judging 
correctly of their feelings, words, and actions. We cannot 
here enter into details ; but w^e shall mention, at least, some 
of the principal maxims that may solve many doubts. 

In sentiments contrary to charity, one should draw the 
proper distinction between what proceeds from natural feel- 
ing and what from free-will. To the former belong par- 
ticular aversions founded upon the disagreeable humors of 
others, their physical defects, tone of voice, deportment, 
manners, and a thousand trifles that do not admit enumera- 
tion, that fall under the class of those things of w^hich one 
can hardly render an account to one^s self. Whatever may 
be the cause, the effect remains the same : one finds no 
reHsh for the object of his aversion, and unavoidable asso- 
ciation wtth him becomes sometimes a real torture. It is 
extremely difficult, often even impossible to overcome such 
an antipathy, ^or is this necessary, since it is not deliber- 
ate, and does not at alt concern the^ conscience. No Com- 
mandment of Go(f or of the Church obliges us to find every 
one according to our taste. A person need not be disturbed, 
then, if he finds such feelings continue, despite his efforts 
to overcome them. It is good to oppose them by praying 
for the object of antipathy, by being preventing in his or 
her regard, and by em.bracing every opportunity to be use- 
ful and pleasant to him. Earely are these means unsuc- 
cessful in overcoming our antipathy. But conscience re- 
quires nothing more than that we should not regulate our 
conduct by our natural aversion, and that our deportment 
toward the persons in question does not betray the inde- 
liberate and guiltless bitterness Avithin. In this way, such 
a temptation, like all /)thers, will become an occasio2i for 
acquiring merit. 



320 Scruples, 

In addition to these natural antipathies, there often exists 
in souls an aversion toward those who have offended them. 
These occasional antipathies are more dangerous than the 
former ; for they are generally accompanied by a motive of 
revenge which it would be Avrong to indulge. Whoever 
experiences anything of this nature, maist be on his guard 
not to allow himself to be led into actions opposed to 
charity. The remedies given above for natural antipathies, 
are still more necessary here. But if, in spite of them, we 
do not succeed in their destruction, we should not be dis- 
quieted ; for he that faithfully resists has not to reproach 
himself w^itli wdiat he involuntarily experiences. 

Others scruple that feeling of regret which they some- 
times experience at their neighbor's prosperity, as well as 
the incipient desire that some evil might befall them. Such 
feelings are assuredly sinful when they proceed from hatred, 
envy, or a desire of revenge ; but they may likewise proceed 
from a motive of charity, of justice, or some other virtue, 
and consequently be most innocent. Thus we may, in 
order to deter others from sin, wish punisliment to a male- 
factor ; or misfortune to a sinner whicli may convert him, 
or deprive him of the power and riches that he uses for the 
oppression of others, or to lead tliem astray. For the sal- 
vation of souls, we may even desire the death of those wdio 
are detrimental to the spiritual w^elfare of others ; and, 
surely, we may regret that important offices are intrusted 
to unwortliy men. In all this, there is nothing contrary to 
charity. The only evil that we are never allowed to wish 
our neighbor, is that absolute evil which can produce no 
advantage whatever either to himself or to others; viz., 
the loss of God and supernatural graces, or eternal dam- 
nation. 

Unfavorable judgments about the neighbor are, likewise, 
for timorous souls, an oft-recurring source of disquiet. 
Every unfavorable opinion of our neighbor is not a rash 
judgment. A simple uncharitable thought that passes 
through the mind; without our deliberately dwelling upon 



Varioics Kinds of Scruples y and t hew Remedy. 321 

it, is as little capable of sullying the conscience as any 
other passing temptation. But if the thought is not re- 
jected, if it be entertained by reflections upon the conduct 
of the party concerned, and if it is to a certain extent 
cherished, though without its culminating into a decided 
judgment, there it is only a grave suspicion, which, too, 
may be amenable to punishment, as we shall presently show. 
AVhen we go so far as to decide that the thing really is as it 
appears to our mind, it is only then that, properly speak- 
ing, we form a judgment. Whether or not this be the case 
is best proved by an unhesitating and decided answer on the 
point in question. 

Not every unfavorable judgment, not every suspicion, is 
criminal, but only those that are not well-founded. Such 
are those in which the actions judged do not agree with the 
certainty of the judgment. Such alone are prohibited 
under the name of rash judgments. 

Consequently, no judgment, however unfavorable, if it 
rests upon a moral certainty, is a sin. How could there be 
evil in such a judgment when it is as clear as daylight ? As 
to what regards .mere suspicion, undoubted certainty is not 
required for its justification, but only a greater or less de- 
gree of probability arising from appearances. It is sinful 
only when our consent exceeds the degree of probable evi- 
dence ; for a suspicion is capable of many degrees of modi- 
fication, and each may correspond to the rules of prudence 
proportioned to the importance of the motive. As to the 
rest, suspicions, even when rash, rarely exceed a venial sin. 

The same holds good in regard to rash judgments when 
the object in question is of little importance, when there is 
hesitancy, or when the necessary reflection is wanting ; for 
to commit mortal sin, full knowledge of the evil and entire 
consent of the wdll must unite. 

To prevent all scruples we shall add, that to form an un- 
favorable judgment on sufficient grounds is not a sin, al- 
though it would be more perfect to refrain from judging of 
the actions of others when it is not our duty to do so. It 



3^2 Scruples, 

is^ in general^ best to interpret the actions of others favora- 
bly as far as possible ; but this praiseworthy simplicity must 
not exceed the rules of prudence. Prudence requires^ in 
order to prevent scandal or danger^ that the person har- 
boring suspicion should act toward the suspected party as 
if he were^ in reality, as bad as he appears to be. In such 
a case it is sufficient to suspend judgment, but at the same 
time act as if it were unfavorable. 

Another source of scruples for timid souls is the duty of 
fraternal correction, of admonishing and warning the sin- 
ner, of preventing backbiting and other faults, which is to 
be understood, of course, when the erring party is neither 
a parent nor one in authority. Such fears are quickly dis- 
pelled. The scrupulous are simply to be told, that the rules 
on this point are intended only for those that are in a state 
to exercise them reasonably, without detriment to tlieir in- 
terior peace. But Christian correction is not a duty for 
such as cannot practise it without disquietude ; and who, 
by their imprudent proceeding, make matters rather worse 
than better. How can he, that is incapable of directing 
himself, direct others? 

We cannot further enlarge on Christian charity, but we 
hope that the instructions here laid down may bring peace 
to troubled souls. We advise them, in spite of the clamors 
of their own unreliable conscience, to adhere firmly to them. 

XV. Scruples ox Holy Pukity. — There remains now 
but one species of scruple — one, however, that is most fre- 
quently brought forward — viz., scruples concerning holy 
purity. 

There is no question here of what is really hurtful to this 
holy virtue, for we are speaking not of sins, but only of 
scruples ; that is, of doubts that trouble innocent souls un- 
necessarily, or upon very slight foundation. 

But what anguish of heart seizes the soul upon the 
slightest doubt that arises on this delicate point ! And 
how can we, in a virtue that concerns'both soul and body, 
distinguish the separate co-operation of each ? How can Ave 



VarioiLS Kinds of Scritples, and their Remedy, 323 

know what was or what was not deliberate ? IIow decide 
what was nearly so ? 

The distinction is here^ indeed^ difficult. Think of a 
highly susceptible soul^ as the scrupulous generally are. 
The ardent imagination^ heated by the fear of temptation^ 
is full of the most indecent^ the most extravagant pictures, 
whose impure and lasting impressions affect even the senses. 
At the same time, tlie evil tendencies of perverse nature 
strongly impel the soul to yield to sensual gratification, 
whilst the rational will is violently stormed to consent to 
the evil desires of the lower passions. 

By so fearful a combat, the soul becomes quite confused 
and dejected. " The noise which/^ according to St. Francis 
de Sales, ^"^ rages around the strong fortress of the will, whilst 
all the other powers are already in the hands of the enemy, 
reduces her to extremity. She almost loses the conscious- 
ness of resistance, although the superior part of the soul 
still renders evidence of its presence. But this superior 
part is so delicate that, in the interior darkness which sur- 
rounds her, it almost escapes the spiritual eye.^^ These 
words enlighten us upon the anguish of a soul during and 
after such a temptation ; for it is, indeed, difficult to ren- 
der to one's self an exact account of what passed in the in- 
nermost sanctuary of the soul. 

It is for the most part impossible for a soul thus tried to 
decide for herself. She should, therefore, submit all to the 
judgment of her spiritual director. The following princi- 
ples may be of assistance to souls thus tempted, provided 
their anxiety leaves them sufficient calmness to apply them ; 
though, at the same time, it must never be forgotten that 
obedience and subjection to the confessor will always be 
their first principle and highest law. 

I. Purity of soul is not to be taken for granted from the 
fact, that the imagination and senses experience no im- 
pressions contrary to the holy virtue. The soul may be al- 
most continually at war in its defence, and yet possess this 
virtue in a very eminent degree ; and, on the other hand^ 



324 Scruples. 

she may have very little love for it, although rarely assailed 
by temptations against it. As true heroism is shown upon 
the battle-field, so the purity of a soul never shines with 
greater lustre than when stormed by the most violent as- 
saults. Holy purity dwells principally in the heart. It is 
the love of this virtue that makes us pure. Our purity is 
measured by our love for it. Struggles strengthen and in- 
flame that love ; whilst peace renders it sluggish and ef- 
feminate. The soul may be happier when not tempted ; 
but that is not pronouncing her purer. The doubts of a 
soul whose peace is rarely disturbed generally deserve more 
notice than those of one in almost constant war ; for when 
our w^eapons have been long out of use, we are much more 
liable to receive slight wounds than w^hen they have been 
well exercised in the combat. 

II. Nothing, without the consent of the free-wdll, can 
harm holy purity. The most shocking temptations, let 
them recur as often as they may, are so many victories, if 
the will adheres to what is good. All the efforts of the 
enemy, though united to the most violent allurements of 
passion, serve only for the purification of the soul if, amid 
such attacks, it preserves in its heart the precious treasure 
planted there by grace. 

We may even say that impure thoughts are so much the 
less to be dreaded, the more exaggerated and horrible they 
are. They are snares too gross, too rudely laid, for a soul 
that treasures in her heart the fear of God and the desire 
of her eternal salvation. Hence, the masters of the interior 
life say rightly that temptations of self-love, pride, self-will, 
and complacency in good works, are far more dangerous to 
a devout soul than all the attacks of impurity, blasphemy, 
and ungodliness that could be presented to her by a fantastic 
imagination or by the gross insinuations of the demon. 
The soul may say to herself: " The more violently I am at- 
tacked, the more surely may I hope that I am in a good 
state. ^' No such noise is made to break into an open door. 
When the cannonading is no longer heard^ it is a sign that 



Various Kinds ofScrttples, and their Remedy, 325 

the besieged city has either capitulated or been taken by 
storm. But if the siege continues^ it is an unmistakable 
evidence of the city^s strength and power of resistance. It 
is precisely the same with the tried soul. Had she^ with 
cowardly and sinful satisfaction opened her heart to the 
insinuations of the enemy^ he would no longer molest her, 
he would suffer her rather to rest in her apparent peace. 
Were he ruler of her heart, he would make no farther 
efforts to enter it; for says the '^^ Following of Christ '^ : " Sin- 
ners whom the devil possesses without resistance, he does 
not tempt. ^^ Eesistance and combat are, therefore, a posi- 
tive proof that consent has not been given. Had the soul, 
as she fears, yielded to impure imaginations, would she 
stop at more sinful actions ? In her state of desolatidn, her 
good-will alone joined to the assistance of divine grace, can 
preserve her from evil deeds; for this state naturally im- 
pels her to seek consolation in the indulgence of passion. 
So long, therefore, as one has not to accuse himself of an 
exterior fault against purity, he may believe in the inno- 
cence of his soul. 

III. The best means to close most securely the avenue to 
scruples on holy purity is, at the very onset of the tempta- 
tion, to comport one^s self as should be done in every other 
attack of the enemy; namely, to resist dangerous thoughts, 
emotions, sentiments, or feelings from the very first. On 
forbidden matters, one should refrain from curiosity. He 
should not be carried away by certain inclinations produced 
by the novelty of these thoughts. He should not allow 
them to begin by so capturing and enchainiug him that 
afterward he will with difficulty free himself from them. 
Finally, by his negligence, he should not give occasion for 
painful examination of conscience as: '^ How far did the 
temptation extend? What consequences had it? What 
share had the will in it T^ Watchfulness and earnestness in 
the early struggle spare much after disquiet and anxiety. 

IV. Want of watchfulness and fidelity in the beginning, 
^^re assuredly, faults; but J do not mean to say that every 



326 Scruples. 

carelessness in this matter is a grievous sin. Our frailty is 
great; and God, who knows it, does not judge it so rigor- 
ously as we think. Little faults always remain little faults. 
God pardons them, though He does not wish that we 
should excuse or repeat them. 

V. Too much anxious foresight courts the temptation, 
and makes everything an occasion for it. Preserve, there- 
fore, freedom in those things in which God leaves you free. 
Do not substitute painful constraint for wise reserve. Do 
not confound what is lawful or indifferent, indeed even 
necessary sometimes, with what is unnecessary or dangerous. 
Do not forbid yourself certain things innocent in them- 
selves, because your unbridled imagination finds in them, 
I know not what kind of temptation. Do not, under the 
pretext of conscientiousness, set aside prudence and reason. 
Attend carefully rather to avoiding evil than to seeking it 
everywhere. Do not select for your line of conduct your 
own vague and uncertain apprehensions; for you would 
thus fall under the category of the unjust and perverse to 
whom, according to the words of St. Paul: '^'^ All things are 
clean to the clean: but to them that are defiled, and to un- 
believers, nothing is clean: but both their mind and their 
conscience are defiled. ^^ ^ This point is, without doubt, the 
most important for you; hence, you should very specially 
take it to heart. 

VI. Neither foresight nor seclusion^ mortification nor 
prayer, can prevent the attacks of Satan or hinder him 
from employing against us the sting of a body not yet in 
perfect subjection. God alone is able to check him, and to 
forbid his molesting the saints; but God often sees that a 
humiliating temptation is, even for His elect, a counteract- 
ing necessity, that they may not be puffed up on account 
of their high gifts. He allows them to feel their own w^eak- 
ness, that this feeling may more perfectly confirm in them 
the kingdom of His grace, for nothing is truer than this 

J Titus i. 15. 



Variotis Kinds of Scrttples, and their Remedy. 327 

saying of St. Augustine: " Love is the protectress of virgin- 
ity, and huuiility is the throne of love/' ^ 

It was in this way that the Lord subjected even the 
Apostle Paul to the most humiliating temptations of the 
flesh. Thrice did the saint implore to be delivered, but 
each time he received for answer: ^'^My grace is sufficient 
for thee r^ 

AVe see, also, how St. Jerome in his desert amid the most 
frightful austerities, and St. Augustine at the period of his 
greatest fervor, complained of these impure temptations. 
Yes, they acknowledged that, waking or sleeping, there 
passed before their mental gaze pictures of which holy 
modesty would not permit them to speak. Judge now for 
yourself, devout soul, whether you have reason to despair, 
to think yourself abandoned by God, when you experience 
something similar to that by which these great saints w^ere 
tried. Attacks of this nature are, besides, often connected 
with purely natural causes and, indeed, they are not rarely 
the result of a too great dread of them. Cool self-posses- 
sion joined to thorough contempt, are sovereign remedies 
against them. 

We shall conclude with some extracts from the letters of 
St. Francis de Sales. He whites: ^'^ You are quite right, my 
poor, dear daughter. You have within you two men . . . 
and these are in conflict. The good-for-nothing one is so 
malicious that very often the other has great difficulty in 
keeping his stand. Then he thinks himself conquered, 
and that the evil man is more valiant than he. But no, 
my daughter, the Evil One is not stronger than you, though 
he is more perverse and obstinate. When you begin to 
w^eep, he rejoices; for then much time is lost. He is al- 
ready well satisfied with your losing time on his account, 
since he cannot induce you to lose eternity. 

^^ Courage, dear soul! I repeat w^ith the greatest em- 
phasis, and in the name of Jesus Christ. Courage, dear 

1 De sancta virginitate, cap. ii. 2 jl Cor. -siii. 9. 



328 Scruples. 

soul ! So long as one can cry out resolutely, though with- 
out feeling, ' Live Jesus !' there is nothing to fear. Tell 
me not that you appear to say it without strength or cour- 
age, in a manner forced and violent, as it Avere. rny 
God, this is precisely that holy violence which bears away 
the kingdom of heaven I See, my daughter, this is the 
sign that the enemy has taken the citadel, though not yet 
the unapproachable, invincible tower which can be lost 
only through its own fault. I mean your free-will, w^hich 
resides in the highest point of the soul ; which depends 
only on God and itself ; and which, when all the other 
powers are in the hands of the enemy, alone remains mas- 
ter of itself, able to refuse its consent. 

^^The soul is troubled, because the adversary continues 
his clamoring and knocking at the entrance. One can 
hardly distinguish what the higher point of the will says 
and does, though its voice is clearer and louder than that 
of the lower will ; but the latter is so rough and coarse that 
it drowns the clear tones of the former. 

^^Mark, in conclusion, that as long as the temptation is 
displeasing to you, there is nothing to fear ; for why should 
it displease you, except that you do not wdll it? . . . 

^^ Do you know how God acts on these occasions? He 
allows the malicious fabricator of such w^ares to offer them 
to you for sale, to give you an occasion of proving by con- 
tempt of them your love for divine things. And should 
one be alarmed, should he change his position for another ? 
my God, no ! It is only the devil, turning everything 
into confusion, putting everything into disorder, moving 
about in all directions to find an open door. Should one 
be vexed at this ? Let the enemy prowl in vain ; but do 
you keep the avenues well closed. He will in the end grow 
tired ; and if he does not, God will Himself raise the siege 
and force him to lay down his arms. 

^^ Neither your present disquiet nor your other fears sur- 
prise me. Thanks be to God, no harm has befallen you ! 
Be not disturbed^ then^, beloved daughter. Stand firm. 



Various Kinds of ScrtipleSy and their Remedy, 329 

One must not allow himself to be carried off by the storm, 
or swept away by the current. Let the enemy rage and 
howl at the door. Let him knocks stamp, cry, bark, and 
do as he will. We know that he can enter our soul only 
by the door of our consent. If we keep it fastened, and 
often give an eye to its being well secured, we need have no 
concern for the rest. Nothing is to be feared.^' 




CHAPTER VI.^ 

Conclusion and Summary of what has been said 
of Scruples and the Remedies for them. 

|0 thought, not even the most heinous, as long as 
it is displeasing to us, can render us guilty. 
'' Look at the mirror/^ says the celebrated Bishop 
of Belley, in his ^SSpiritual Combat/^ ^'^it reflects perfectly 
the object held before it ; but this object is not in the 
mirror. It is precisely the same with our heart. It is a 
mirror ... in which the devil, in his cunning, can depict 
things in an abominable, shameful, and terrific manner ; 
but our will alone can open the door to evil and admit these 
horrors into the soul. The tempter may practise his jug- 
gling as long as he pleases ; he may present to your heart 
the most impure pictures ; he may pour into the ears 
of your spirit the most horrible blasphemies, the most 
criminal and wicked suggestions — yet all this cannot render 
you guilty. ^^ 

^'^And should these attacks continue your whole life 
long,'^ says St. Francis de Sales, ^^they would still not be 
able to soil you with the least stain of sin.^^ — ^^ Yes, but I 
fear my feelings/^ ... To this we answer with all theo- 
logians, who are certainly more reliable than your fears, 
that it is not less impossible for doubt and consent to be 
entertained at the same time, than to make certainty and 
uncertainty agree. Consent presupposes submission so entire 
and resignation of the soul so perfect, that doubt cannot 
possibly exist. The surest sign of the souVs not consenting 
is that very doubt as to whether or not she has consented. 
Mortal sin consists in the resolve of the will, and its malice 

1 This chapter is from Boudoii's " The IIolj' Way of the Cross," Book III. 
chap. 5. 

330 



ScriLples — Summary of the Stcbject. 331 

leaves no room for a moment^s doubt. — ^^ Yes/' you reply, 
^*'as many temptations and as many crosses as God may 
send me^ if only I do not offend Him V^ — But is it, then, 
possible that you do not perceive that you are merely try- 
ing to escape suffering? In this, self-love plays a great part, 
and artfully deceives you. Humble yourself before God, 
and acknowledge that He knows better than you what is 
needful for you. 

According to St. Louis of Granada, most scruples of this 
nature proceed either from the incapability of distinguish- 
ing temptation from consent, in which case obedience is 
the only remedy, or else from a lack of due appreciation 
of the Divine Goodness. The tempted soul, in question, 
dreams not of the ardent longing of God for her salvation ; 
she sees in Him not a father, but only a stern judge. In 
such a case, the admonition of the Holy Ghost should be 
followed ; sentiments w^orthy of the goodness of an all-mer- 
ciful God should be awakened ; and the . Lord should be 
sought in all simplicity. The scrupulous indulge ideas of 
God that w^ould be very derogatory even to an honorable 
man. It appears to them that He is intent only upon their 
destruction ; and yet, the mercies of the Lord are infinitely 
greater than can be imagined I 

Scruples sometimes proceed from a melancholy tempera- 
ment. Lawful diversion and medical prescriptions are then 
necessary. Again, they may spring from some defect in 
character, in which case they are with difficulty cured, and 
submission of judgment is the great desideratum. Scruples 
may also proceed from the reading* of unsuitable theological 
w^orks ; for example, such as treat of predestination, or 
others that exaggerate serious truths. For such scruples 
there is no other remedy than the absolute sacrifice of such 
reading and the • reflections to which it gives rise. The 
books in question should be given up, conversations upon 
them avoided, even deliberate thoughts of them banished. 
Kashness here entails much unhappiness and suffering, for 
experience shows that such inquisitive souls live in constant 



S3^ Scruples, 

disquiet^ and never arrive at perfect peace. Sometimes 
scruples are a special dispensation of God to purify and 
humble the understanding. In this case, patience and 
resignation to God^s will are the best remedies. To some 
other souls scruples come from the Evil One, who seeks to 
perplex and discourage them, and thus render devotion in- 
supportable. Finally, an inexperienced and undecided con- 
fessor may either give occasion to scruples, or he may increase 
them where they already exist. In such a case, the peni- 
tent should unquestionably change him without delay. 

But from whatever quarter scruples arise, the following 
rules are intended for souls whom they concern : 

I. General confessions are of no use whatever to the 
scrupulous, if one has already been made. Such souls 
fancy the repetition of their general confession will quiet 
their mind ; but they are greatly deceived. St. Francis 
Xavier says very justly : " Unnecessary repetitions, instead 
of putting an end to scruples, increase them tenfold. There 
is no blessing upon such confessions ; for, in spite of fine 
pretexts to the contrary, self-love and self-gratification are 
the sources whence they spring. They displease God, and 
should, therefore, be forbidden. Even annual confessions 
are not good for the scrupulous ; neither should they con- 
fess twice before the Holy Communion, a proceeding to 
which they are often impelled by the thought that their 
last confession was not a good one. They must not return 
to the confessional, not even if they think they have for- 
gotten a sin ; for it will suffice to mention it the next time 
they approach the Sacrament. They must, making no 
account of their difficulties, communicate whenever their 
spiritual guide thinks proper. 

II. A fundamental rule for the scrupulous is to omit all 
doubtful sins. Others may confess such sins; but timorous 
souls (as there is no obligation in the malter) should not 
do so. If they would follow this rule, how soon their end- 
less confessions would finish; for they can scarcely accuse 
themselves, with certainty, of one sin. It is no use for them 



Sttmmary of the Subject, 333 

to plead that they do so for the sake of greater security: 
for^ on the one side, God does not require it of them; and 
on the other, it is not suitable to their spiritual condition. 
Such accusation springs from nothing else than self-love. 
As to temptations, they may confess them only when they 
can swear upon the Holy Gospel that they have consented 
to them. The scrupulous should not too greatly prolong 
their examination of conscience. Their state requires but 
a very short review, since they already have their sins too 
constantly before their eyes. 01], if they would remem- 
ber that confession was not, as some teachers of error have 
asserted, instituted to distress and torture the conscience, 
but to alleviate and console it! All that God exacts of us 
is, that far from wilfully and deliberately concealing any- 
thing necessary to be told, we frankly and honestly declare 
the sins that come to our mind after a careful and reason- 
able examination. Sins forgotten are pardoned along with 
those that are confessed. If this were not so, souls pos- 
sessed of an imperfect memory would be burdened with an 
impossible duty. All the rest one should quietly submit 
to the judgment of an intelligent confessor; and were it to 
happen that even he erred in his decision, yet the obedient 
soul may rest in perfect security. You think^ for example, 
that your general or ordinary confession was invalid. Your 
confessor tells you the contrary. Suppose, now, that he is 
wrong and your confession was, in fact, as you fear. Even 
so, if you remain obedient, you Avill neither be responsible 
to God nor less pleasing to Him. 

III. Above all things, a scrupulous person should avoid 
persistency in self -judgment. He should renounce his own 
ideas and give up his own false notions. It devolves not 
on the patient to choose his remedies, to decide upon his 
medicines. This choice is never left to the sick. Even 
physicians consult one another when indisposed; and the 
most expert lawyer advises with others of his profession in 
questions involving his own interests. Entire submission 
is absolutely necessary for the scrupulous. They gain moro 



334 Scrttples. 

by simple obedience than by a thousand instructions;, peni- 
tential workS;, or other devout exercises. Once^ when St. 
Ignatius was tormented by scruples, he fasted eight entire 
days, without taking any nourishment whatever, to move 
the Divine Mercy to grant liim deliverance. But all was 
in vain. Xothing but simple obedience to his confessor 
freed him from the torture. God desires submission of 
mind. Do what we wdll, without such submission all will 
be useless. But, when the scrupulous imagine that they 
do not explain themselves properly, that the confessor does 
not understand them, and does not rightly know their 
state, they must thoroughly despise such suggestions as the 
pure effects of self-love. Say sincerely what passes in your 
interior. Say it as well as you can. To more you are uot 
bound. It is the confessor^s business to examine wdiether 
or not he understood you rightly; yours to obey implicitly. 
Finally, you must generously oppose your scruples. If 
they call upon you to repeat your Office, or the penance 
imposed in confession, or to assist at a second Mass on 
Sundays or holy-days, on the plea that you liave not fully 
satisfied the obligation, disregard the suggestion -precisely 
on that account. If the thought comes that you commit a 
sacrilege by receiving the holy Sacraments, or that certain 
innocent things are mortal sins, rise above it, act courage- 
ously in spite of your fears and difficulties. You say: 
^' But it would be a sin for me to do something, although 
good in itself, but whicli, to my false conscience, appears 
sinful. ^^ We reply: In such a case, others might possibly 
sin; but with you it is quite different. Your confessor has 
assured you that it is not sinful; hence, you not only do 
not commit a sin in acting contrary to your own judgment, 
but you do something very pleasing to God. A priest was 
once on Jie brink of despair. He tliought he committed 
a sacrilege every time he celebrated Holy Mass, and trans- 
gressed, besides, in nearly everything he did. Divine 
Providence sent him a holy and enlightened man, who said 
to him: ^'father; rise above this imaginary sacrilege. 



Summary of the Subject. 335 

Do with hearty good-will what your scruples represent to 
you as a gross sin^ but which^ in the jvist opinion of sensi- 
ble people^ is no harm at all/^ The priest obeyed simply, 
his feelings to the contrary notwithstanding; and thus he 
was freed from his mental torture. We once knew a per- 
son who made several general confessions, in order to re- 
pair some former ones that were really invalid. But in 
vain did she seek peace of conscience in these repetitions. 
She resolved, then, to prepare again with very special at- 
tention for another general confession. She spent much 
time in the examination. With incredible attention she 
wrote her accusation in its fullest details; and then con- 
fessed in a private chapel thus to be subjected to fewer dis- 
tractions. But after all this labor, she was more than ever 
disquieted. She obtained peace only by submitting her 
judgment to that of her confessor and giving up general 
confessions; although the last, like those that had pre- 
ceded, was in her own opinion equally invalid. She gained 
in the end, but only by submission, marvellous peace, not 
w^on, however, without a hard-fought struggle with self, 
and not till she could make up her mind to desist from 
repeating her supposed unworthy confessions. God in- 
fused it into her soul as a reward for her obedience, with- 
out which she would, despite her anxiety and efforts, have 
still been disturbed and disquieted. 




CHAPTER VIL 

Examples of the Danger that attends Self-willed 
Persistence in Scruples. 

iJN" conclusion^ let a frightful example serve to con- 
vince tlie scrupulous of the necessity of obedi- 
ence. This example is found in Martin Luther 
of wretched celebrity. This heretic spent the first part of 
his life in the exact fulfilment of the rules of his Order; 
but^ ever disquieted by scruples that he would not over- 
come by humble obedience to superiors^ he succumbed to 
temptation^ and ended in those lamentable errors that are 
only too well known. Vie extract the following particulars 
from the excellent work of Cazales: 

^^ Luther/^ says one of his biographers, ^^was in the 
highest degree what the directors of souls term scrupulous; 
and herein lies, according to my opinion, the explanation 
of his later doctrine on Justification, and his revolt against 
the authority of the Church. ^' 

A writer of his own party gives us in the following ex- 
tract an insight into Luther^s state during the first period 
of his lif e : ^ ^^ Though naturally frank and cheerful, yet 
in the cloister Luther was always sad and disquieted. This 
sprang in the beginning from the thought of his father^s 
dissatisfaction at his embracing the religious state. His 
violent expressions on that head greatly disturbed Luther, 
who w^as, besides, anxiously longing for some certainty as 
to the pardon of his sins; and in nothing that he did could 
he find consolation. . . . One of his spiritual directors at 
this period said to him: ^ My son, what do you want? Do 
you not know that God has commanded us to hope in 

1 Walch, Luther's Works, vol. xxiv. 
336 



Danger in Setf-willed Persistence in Scriiples. 'i^'x^'] 

Him ? ^ When Jolm von Staupitz came to Erfurt^ Luther 
complained to him of his misery. He confided to him tlie 
fact of his being tormented by frightful thoughts. He 
was firmly convinced^ as he said himself^ that he alone had 
such temptations and combats^ and that neither Staupitz 
nor his other spiritual guides knew or understood anything 
concerning his case. ^^ Here one clearly sees the stupidity 
of a scruj)ulous person who cannot be convinced that he is 
understood by any one! Luther again says: ^^As I was 
always repeating my absurd accusations^ my confessor once 
said to me: ' You are a fool! God does not will to contend 
with you, but you with Him. He is not angry with you, 
but you with Him ! ^ ^^ 

" You would wish to be without sin/^ said Staupitz to 
Luther, " and yet you have no real sins with which to re- 
proach yourself. Christ pardons the true sinner, patri- 
cides, blasphemers, apostates, etc. Take an examination 
of conscience in your hand: in it sins are clearly defined. 
Give up your nonsensical and ludicrous notions, and do 
not make of every trifle a mortal sin.^^ How excellently 
well suited are these admonitions of Dr. Staupitz to souls 
that are always occupied with their own anxious conscience! 
^^One can truly say,^^ Cazales here very justly remarks, ^"^if 
the sinner acknowledges, confesses, and truly repents, 
gross sinfulness is more easily cured than the demoniacal 
proceedings of the scrupulous person who, in the over-esti- 
mate of his own strength, aims at freedom from sin, and 
thus strives to elevate himself to a condition impossible 
here below. ^^ 

In order to procure interior peace through his own efforts, 
Luther led a very austere life in the punctual and constant 
discharge of the rules of his Order. He himself testifies to 
this effect: ^'It is true,^^ he says, '^Hhat I was a devout 
monk, and in my heart attached to my Order; so that I 
can say, if ever monk gained heaven by the monastic life, 
I too should reach it. All the brethren of the monastery 
that knew me can bear witness to this; for if I had per- 



^^S Sc7'ttples. 

severed in it longer^ I should have killed myself witli'vigils, 
prayers, reading, and other penitential works/' Melanc- 
thon, too, informs us that Luther excelled in all pious exer- 
cises, such as reading, fasting, and prayer. John Mathesius 
adds, that Luther had quite exhausted his strength with 
vigils and fasting. Finally, Seckendorf tells us that 
Luther^ without allowing himself time for meals, would 
lock himself in his call to recite the Canonical Office when 
his studies left him no leisure for this duty. This manner 
of life so weakened the unfortunate man, that for seven 
weeks he was unable to sleep, and he ahiiost lost the use 
of his mental faculties. 

General information concerning the state of his health at 
this period gives evidence of deep-seated hypochondria 
and disturbance of mind, whose source was secret pride 
concealed under the mantle of false humility. Journeying 
to Italy, he was attacked by so violent a vertigo, together 
with singing and roaring in his ears,- that he thought his 
end had come. His biographers tell us that at this time 
his terrible fear as to the remission of his sins increased his 
bodily sufferings. In Eome he was so slow in celebrating 
Holy Mass, that, during his, seven others could be begun 
and ended; and if there is no exaggeration in his own as- 
sertion, the server called to him: ''Passat PassaT — Malce 
haste I Make haste ! — at which he was very much vexed. 

Such proceedings certainly indicate that one means to 
damn one's self by main force. 

How many religious were at that same time working 
out their salvation in the same convent by the vow of 
obedience! Whereas, this unfortunate man, though tor- 
menting himself so frightfully, was hurrying with rapid 
strides to his own perdition I Why was it that he did not 
sanctify himself by so austere a life? What was wanting? 
Nothing but a little humility and obedience. These two 
virtues would have enriched him in the eyes of the Lord, 
who requires submission of heart above all else, and who 
rejected the offerings presented Him by His people with 



Danger in Self-willed Persistence in Scruples, 339 

the words: " I have no pleasure in you^ and I shall accept 
no offering from your hand^ because your own will is in 
your fasts/^ 

Ah^ like Luther^ how many scrupulous persons ruin 
tJiemselves, soul and body^ for a mere nothing! They offer 
to the Lord a thousand sacrifices that He does not at all 
require^ whilst they obstinately refuse what alone He does 
exact; namely, their own will and judgment. They refuse 
to be guided by their spiritual director; in short, they deny 
to the Lord that humble obedience which is far more pleas- 
ing to Him than all other sacrifices. Shall they not finally 
see at what a price they could have purchased the good 
pleasure of God, peace and salvation to their soul ? 

Some of Luther's table-conversations give us an insight 
into his troubled conscience, and show that whilst still in 
the monastery his confessor had represented to him his 
false and erroneous turn of mind. It was his own fault 
that he wished to save himself by his own efforts, without 
the help of divine mercy, of which lie thought he had no 
need. His superiors and confessors explained to him the 
doctrine of the Church as it then was, as it is now, and as 
it ever shall be — the same in all time. They admonished 
him to resign himself to the mercy of God, who, for the 
sake of the merits of Jesus Christ, forgives us our sins, but 
in whom we must believe and hope. No one nurtured 
Luther^s insane scruples. He was told to be at peace and 
trust in God; and this, according to the principles of 
Catholic truth, is the only proper method of treating this 
malady of the soul. But Lu therms self-will baffled every 
argument; and thus the temptations that constantly ex- 
posed him to despair had sooner or later to bring about a 
definite crisis in his soul. In an attack of melancholy he 
once locked himself in his cell for several days, and refused 
to see any one. Then, says an old chronicle, came Luke 
Enderger with some children playing sweet music at his 
door, and knocking for admittance; but the door remained 
closed. Then it was forced open, and Luther was found 



340 Scmiples, 

lying prostrate in a faint. Again tlie children played^ and 
tlieir music restored him to consciousness. Later^ the self- 
willed monk entertained the thought of suicide^ and once 
declared at table that the sight of a knife conjured up 
painful pictures before him. His unhappy condition 
brought about no catastrophe of this nature — events took a 
different^ but not a less lamentable turn. Luther^s moral 
errors passed to the mind and spirit, thus leading to the 
sad end — formal heresy. 

After long efforts to save himself by his own strength^ 
Luther suddenly caught at the contrary extreme, an occur- 
rence by no means rare in such cases. Excessive austerity 
was followed by slothfulness; exaggerated, passionate, peni- 
tential fervor ended in his abandonment of every means of 
amendment and sanctification. With the passionate violence 
of his character, he took refuge in the truth of faith, that 
Jesus Christ by His death on the cross has won for us sal- 
vation. It was not sufficient for him to despair of attain- 
ing salvation by his own strength, but he went still further. 
He altogether rejected man^s co-operation in the work of 
salvation, as if he would say to God: ^^ Since I cannot do 
all, since I am unable to attain my ideal, I will do nothing 
at all, not even that which is in my power I'^ 

Sad and insane conclusion, to which scruples not unfre- 
quently bring a soul weary of fruitless combats, and con- 
scious at last of her own impotence to carry out her vain 
theories of perfection! 

Let us pause here and leave more detailed consideration 
of this frightful example to those to whom these lines are 
addressed, since it speaks more forcibly than any warning 
that could be adduced. Granting that but few self-willed, 
scrupulous souls become, like Luther, the authors of heresy; 
yet many j)erish, less strikingly indeed, but in a manner 
not less fearful. They reject religious obligations; and 
final impenitence or insanity is often the sad outcome of 
their high-minded self-will. But even should scruples not 
lead to such extremes, they at least render life useless and 



Danger in Self-willed Persistence in Scruples. 341 

unhappy, impede spiritual progress, and subject the soul 
to continual alarms. There is only one infallible remedy 
to oppose to this evil; namely, the unconditional renuncia- 
tion of one^s own direction. In this is followed the Gospel 
counsel of losing one^s self in order to find one^s self. 
This sacrifice costs an effort, but it is necessary. Peace, 
oftentimes indeed eternal salvation, depends upon it. 
Courage and strength to make this sacrifice is, for the 
scrupulous soul, the grace of graces. Fail not, therefore, 
ardently to implore it of the Divine Goodness, through the 
intercession of the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph, those 
two most humble and obedient souls. To their protection 
also we confidently commend all the efforts contained in 
the foregoing pages to restore lost peace to unhappy souls. 

A. M. D. a. 



APPENDIX. 



Preparatory Remarks. 

INE often hears pious souls complain that they can 
I neither pray nor meditate nor examine their con- 
I science. They ask what they must do to make 
these exercises easy and useful. In answer we give them 
the following method. 

We give also a formula for making a one day^s retreat 
profitably. The exercises may be performed every Monday. 
Souls that have their perfection at heart will gladly subject 
themselves to it, for it has been sanctioned by the example 
of the saints, and its advantages have been proved by ex- 
perience. 

General Remarks upon each of the Various 
Methods of Prayer. 

I. Never omit the remote preparation for prayer, which 
consists in continual interior recollection. Avoid, there- 
fore, as much as possible, every occasion of distraction, A 
soul habitually dissipated is never fit for good meditation. 

II. Endeavor to make the immediate preparation, that 
is, read before retiring at night the meditation for the next 
morning. Think upon it before going to sleep; and next 
morning, as soon as you awake, recall it to mind. Try 
between these two periods to banish every other thought. 

III. The immediate preparation is not less necessary. It 
comprises the following points: 

(1) Kecall the presence of God as vividly as possible. 

(2) Offer Him all the powers of your soul, your memory, 

342 



Remarks on Various Methods of Prayer. 343 

imagination^ and will, and earnestly implore of Him the 
grace to apply them exclusively to the subject of the medi- 
tation. 

(3) If you meditate upon sensible objects; for instance, 
on the birth of Christ, place yourself in spirit where the 
mystery was accomplished, in the stable at Bethlehem, at 
the crib. ... If you consider a purely spiritual truth, for 
example, the misery into which sin plunged man, you can 
the more easily fix your attention upon it. Imgaine a soul 
held fast in the prison of the body, banished to this valley 
of tears, condemned to the society of animals. . . . This 
preparation is called preliminary, or the representation of 
the place. The end of this first preparation is to produce 
upoh the soul an impression similar to that which a faith- 
ful picture of the mystery under consideration would make 
upon the corporal sight, which impression will serve to fix 
the imagination and render meditation more easy. This 
preparation should be short, and made without effort. It 
must not fatigue the mind. If it should prove wearisome 
to souls or become a hindrance, it would be better to give 
it up entirely. 

(4) Ask God for a grace corresponding to the subject of 
your meditation, by which you may rightly understand and 
put it into practice. This is the second preparatory exer- 
cise. 

IV. If through God^s grace you feel particularly im- 
pressed by some reflection, pause there without concerning 
yourself about the other points of your meditation. A 
gleaner remains in the field as long as he finds anything to 
glean, and thinks not of pushing on farther. Be less in- 
tent upon meditating truth than upon taking it to heart 
and rightly relishing it. 

V. If you make use of a book containing fully prepared 
and finished meditations, do not read too much at once. 
Stop at every point or at every sentence in order to reflect, 
otherwise your exercise will be a reading instead of a medi- 
tatioD. 



344 Appendix, 

VI. Be not changeable in the choice of your meditations. 
Go regularly through the book you have chosen; and when 
you have finished it^ either begin it again or take another. 

Prayer of St. Ignatius at the End of Meditation. 
Receive^ Lord! my entire liberty, my memory, my 
understanding, and my whole will. AVhatever I have and 
all that I possess Thou hast bestoAved upon me. To Thee I 
return all and I surrender all, to be governed entirely by 
Thy will. Grant me only Thy grace and Thy love, and I 
am rich enough, nor do I desire anything more. 

First Method of Prayer. 

The Actual Meditation. 

Remark. — "We take for granted that the preparation, 
remote, proximate, and immediate, has been alioays pioic- 
tually performed, as mentioned above. 

Meditation implies the directing of the three powers of 
the soul to the consideration of some pious subject, as a 
means of becoming better and of elevating ourselves to 
God. Meditation is also an exercise of the memory, the 
understanding, and the will. 

Exercise of the Memory. 
The exercise of the memory consists in this : First, briefly 
to recall the subject of the meditation one has prepared, as 
if he intended to relate the whole to another. After that 
he returns to the first point, fixes it vividly before him, 
pauses upon the truth or mystery contained in it, and 
awakens an act of faith. During the meditation, also, the 
memory is from time to time active. This happens as often 
as one recalls anything bearing on the subject, to draw from 
it new matter for consideration and affections. 

Exercise of the Understanding. 
The exercise of the understanding consists in considera- 
tion and application. 

I. Consideration consists in reflections upon what must 



First Method of Prayer, 345 

be believed^ practised^ or avoided with regard to the truth 
or mystery of which the meditation treats ; the motives for 
its utility^ necessity/ justice^ facility, etc., that should im- 
pel us thereto, and the harm that might arise from the 
neglect of them. One should ask himself what he should 
counsel his best friend on this or that point, or what he 
should wish to have done when on his death-bed. After 
this he goes on to weigh some of the motives or conse- 
quences calculated to move the heart, and says to himself 
everything that he would say to another, to induce him to 
put into execution the resolutions suggested by such reflec- 
tions. 

II. The application is twofold: general and particular. 

1. The general application is made by reflecting on how 
most men conduct themselves in regard to this truth, and 
how we ourselves judge of their conduct. If we flnd that 
we too belong to the number of the blind, then this judg- 
ment must be turned upon ourselves. But one should not 
dwell too long on this application ; and he should be careful 
lest it prove an occasion of distraction. 

2. In the particular application one reflects how he has 
hitherto valued the truth considered, whether his conduct 
in general has been regulated by it, or whether he has 
neglected it. If the latter proves to be the case, he ex- 
amines on what points he has failed, and reflects on the 
harm that has come to him from it. He goes back over the 
causes, intentions, etc.; he compares his own negligence 
with the zeal worldlings evince in striving for riches and 
honors ; and, finally, he looks into what, in the future, has 
to be done or omitted. 

Exercise of the Will. 

The activity of the will, which is generally regulated by the 
conviction of the understanding, expresses itself during the 
meditation in different acts, which form the most excellent 
and essential part of the whole exercise. 

I. The will produces devout affections corresj)onding to 



34^ Appendix. 

the subject of the meditation^ the present state and feelings 
of the soul^ and the attraction of the Holy Ghost. 

The usual affections are : (1) Sorrow and regret ; (2) hu- 
mility ; (3) astonishment ; (4) gi^atitude ; (5) mistrust of self ; 
(6) patience ; (7) total surrender of one^s self to God^ to do, 
to suffer^ and to sacrifice all without reserve, as it may please 
Him ; (8) confidence in God^s goodness and in the merits of 
Jesus Christ; (9) offering of self; (10) renunciation of all 
that prevents or retards progress in virtue ; (11) acceptance 
of all anticipated suffering ; (12) fervor ; (13) love ; (14) con- 
formity to the will of God ; (15) resignation to the arrange- 
ments of Divine Providence. These affections, of course, 
should be chosen according to the subject of the meditation. 

II. The will makes resolutions, which are the outcome of 
the preceding reflections : (1) A general resolution ; (2) 
one or two particular resolutions which apply the general 
one to the present needs of the soul ; and (3) a very special, 
practical resolution to embrace this or that means to carry 
out more securely during the present day the particular 
resolution. 

III. What is understood by the colloquy in meditation is 
also an exercise of that power of the soul called the will. 
Colloquies are reverential and confidential conversations 
with God, in which we praise Him, thank Him, offer our- 
selves to Him, beg His grace, etc. In these colloquies one 
speaks to God at one time as a child to its father ; at an- 
other, as a servant to his master ; again, as an invalid to 
his physician, etc. The colloquies may also be addressed 
to Jesus Christ, to the Blessed Virgin, or some saint. The 
meditation is concluded with an Our Father ^ndi Hail Mary, 

Concluding Act of the Meditation. 

1. Pause for a moment to see whether the meditation has 
been made well or ill. In the latter case, review the medi- 
tation to find the cause, recall the light that was given, the 
emotions of grace experienced, and the resolutions taken. 

2. Offer the resolutions to God, beg pardon for the faults 



First Meth od of Prayer. 347 

committed during prayer, and implore the assistance of the 
Blessed Virgin and patron saints. 

3. The third thing to be done is to make choice of some 
of the essential reflections or affections by which you have 
been particularly touched, of which to form a spiritual 
nosegay. This will, from time to time during the day, 
remind you of your prayer, and renew in your soul the holy 
sentiments excited by God^s grace during the meditation. 

An Example applicable to this Method. 

A merchant learns through a friend that in a specified 
place certain goods are for sale. Now this is the subject of 
meditation and the preparation. 

He reflects upon Avhat~ he has heard, collecting all the 
powers of his mind, to concentrate them u^^on the matter. 
It seems to him that he sees the whole affair passing before 
his eyes. (This is the immediate preparation, answering 
to the preparatory acts, the preludes. ) 

He then represents to himself very distinctly and in 
detail the goods, their quality, price, and the city in which 
they are for sale. (This is the exercise of the memory.) 

ISText he considers the various uses he can make of them, 
what motives induce him to purchase these goods, what 
successful result their purchase may have for him, what 
gain they will bring him, etc. (This is the exercise of the 
understanding, the weighing of the matter.) 

He sees, moreover, how many other business men have 
utilized similar favorable opportunities, have reaped much 
profit from them ; and he cannot but approve the project. 
(This is the general application.) 

Now, he sees also how, through his own fault, he has up 
to the present neglected to learn and to embrace such op- 
portunities, although he either had the money in his pos- 
session, or would have been able to procure it. He now 
reckons the loss his neglect has caused him, and considers 
how he can indemnify himself for it ; what obstacles are to 



34^ Appendix. 

be overcome, what means to be employed. (This is the 
particular application.) 

He regrets his negligence, reproaches himself for it, re- 
solves without delay to atone for it, and concludes that, for 
a specified amount, he will in this or that way purchase 
such and such goods. (These are the affections, the general 
and particular resolutions. ) 

He now communicates his project to an intimate friend, 
and this is the colloquy. 

He ends by asking himself whether he has well weighed 
the matter, and thus strengthens his determination. (These 
are the acts that conclude the meditation.) 

Instead of business, take a truth of salvation, a mystery 
of our holy religion, a virtue, etc. Work it out precisely 
as did the merchant, after first asking God's assistance, and 
you will have made a good meditation. 

This illustration proves that all can meditate, that the 
form given above is in perfect harmony with the natural 
method of thought pursued by the human mind, and that 
it is much easier than is often imagined. 

Second Method of Prayer. 

Contemplation. 

Kemakk. — The second method of prayer is contempla- 
tion, and is to be applied in meditation to a mystery of the 
life of Jesus or Mary, or, in general, to some historical fact. 
Having most vividly impressed upon the soul the thought of 
the presence of God, the immediate preparation should be 
made as follows : 

1. Recall the event or mystery to be considered as a Avhole, 
without at all entering into particulars. 2. Represent to 
yourself the place in which the mystery was enacted ; for 
example, the Temple, the Cenacle, Mount Calvary, the sea- 
shore, the desert, or the mountains, according to the event 
or subject selected. 3. The help of God should be asked 
here, to obtain the grace corresponding with the mystery 
meditated ; for example, humility, patience, compassion of 



Second Method of Prayer. 349 

hearty spiritual joy^ according to the subject^ as the Birth of 
Our Lord Jesus Christy His sufEerings^ His deaths or Resur- 
rection. 

This must be done briefly^ after which follows the medi- 
tation proper^ which must certainly prove easy and simple, 
as well as successful. One has only to consider the persons, 
their words, and actions. Let us take, for example, the 
baptism of Jesus Christ. 

I. What persons are there present ? The Eternal Father, 
who gives testimony to the Divinity of His Son ; Jesus 
Christ-, the Son of God, who, like a sinner, receives the 
baptism of penance ; the Holy Ghost, who descends under 
the form of a dove ; St. John the Baptist preaching pen- 
ance; a multitude of sinners, male and female, of every 
condition. Let us ask ourselves who these people are. 
Who is the Heavenly Father? Who is Jesus Christ ? And 
so of the rest. 

II. What do these persons say? St. John says to Jesus : 
'' I ought to be baptized by Thee, and comest Thou to me ? ^^ 
And Jesus answering, said to him : ^^ Suffer it to he so now. 
For so it becometh us to fulfil all justice. ^^ ^ Oh, that con- 
test of humility, in which Jesus gains the victory ! We can 
also reflect on the words of the multitude that surround the 
Precursor of the Lord. Finally, consider the words of the 
Heavenly Father: ^^This is My beloved Son, in whom I 
am well pleased. ^^ Solemn words, containing rich matter 
for reflection ! 

III. What do these persons do ? Jesus draws near. He 
descends into the Jordan. Behold His interior recollec- 
tion. His humility. He has no need of the baptism. St. 
John takes water and pours it over His headj and at the 
same moment the heavens open, the Holy Ghost descends, 
the voice of the Heavenly Father is heard. Think of the 
emotion among the assembled crowd gazing with breathless 
attention upon this astonishing miracle. 

What fruit can one draw from this meditation? It 

1 Matt. iii. 14, 15. 



350 Appendix. 

naturally appears to be humility. If^ however^ through 
God's inspiration^ the soul feels more drawn to another 
virtue^ the attraction of grace must be followed ; for ^'^the 
Holy Spirit breatheth where He will V The meditation is 
concluded with a colloquy^ the Our Father ^ and the con- 
cluding prayers. 

Eemakks. — I. One should not begin by considering the 
persons in the mystery individually, and in the same way 
take up their words and actions. But the scene should be 
contemplated in the whole. The different actions should 
be viewed with the actors concerned. What does thi« one 
say? what does that one do? — for it is in this order one 
would witness the scene if present at it. The natural 
course of events, therefore, should be followed. The per- 
son meditating should endeavor to be present in spirit at 
the mystery contemplated. AVhen one circumstance has 
been considered from every point of view, proceed to the 
next in the same way. The separation of persons, their 
words and actions, given above, are intended rather to 
afford material for contemplation. It is not necessary to 
confine one's self to the order therein observed. 

II. In lieu of spoken words, consider the interior senti- 
ments ; for example, in the mystery of His Birth the Child 
Jesus does not speak. But we can easily imagine what 
sentiments animated Him when He was placed in the 
manger, when His holy Mother caressed Him, and offered 
Him her first loving services, when the shepherds and the 
AVise Men adored Him and offered their gifts. 

III. If one person, one word, or one act affords sufficient 
matter for occupation during the whole time of meditation, 
stop there without proceeding further. 

Third Method of Prayer. 

The third method of prayer is in the way of examination 
of conscience, united with affections of sorrow and resolu- 
tions. One can make this examination either upon the 
Ten Commandments of God ; on the Seven Deadly Sins ; 



Third Method of Prayer. 3 5 1 

the three powers of the soul^ memory, unclerstandmg, and 
will ; or the five senses — sights hearing, taste^ touchy and 
smell. The method is^ as follows : 

(1) Before beginning, recollect yourself and ask yourself 
the question: What am I going to do? I am going to 
meditate on this or that subject. 

(2) Implore God for the grace to know your transgressions 
against the Ten Commandments^ and promise henceforth 
faithfully to observe these Commandments. 

(3) Kow begins the examination of conscience^ not as for 
confession^ but in the form of a meditation^ a short state- 
ment of conscience to be made to one^s self before God. 
Ask yourself : How have I sinned against the First Com- 
mandment? against faith? against hope? against love? 
against religion? Examine yourself for one or two minutes^ 
beg God^s pardon for having committed the faults remarked^ 
and promise to do better. Then add some pious affection 
to which you feel interiorly attracted ; for instance : '^^O my 
God^ I believe I But do Thou increase my faith I my 
God^ pardon me that I have not always had sufficient con- 
fidence in Thee I My God^ I shall ever love Thee more and 
more I'^ After the examination upon the First Command- 
ment^ go to the second, observing the same method ; and so 
on to the end of the Commandments. 

If the time allotted for meditation is over, finish here for 
to-day, and conclude with the Our Father, On the follow- 
ing day the exercise can be resumed. 

If instead of the Commandments of God one chooses for 
the subject of his meditation the Seven Deadly Sins, the * 
five senses, or the three powers of the soul, the method to 
be pursued is the same ; the matter alone is different. In- 
stead of asking: How have I sinned against faith? say. 
Have I been guilty of pride, of envy, etc.? ... or have I 
sinned with my eyes, tongue, etc.? ... or have I sinned 
with my memory, will, or understanding ? . . . Conclude, 
as before, with the Our Father. 

A very excellent form of prayer is tp reflect bow Jesus 



352 Appendix, 

Christ and His most pure Mother made use of these exterior 
senses. What modesty in their looks! . . . What retirement! 
What charity in their words! . . . What strict watchfulness 
over their ears, in order to hear only edifying things ! . . . 
What moderation at meals ! . . . Finally, what precaution 
and modesty in the vise of all their senses ! . . . Now ask 
what use you have, up to the present, made of your senses ! 
. . . Have I been in this respect a true imitator of Jesus 
and Mary ? ... If you have to reproach yourself on this 
point, then excite sorrow, make a firm resolution to be more 
watchful in future, and to keep your senses in more re- 
straint. 

Fourth Method of Prayer. 

The fourth method of prayer is the easiest and often also 
the most successful. It consists in taking some vocal prayer, 
for instance, the Our Father, the Hail Mary, or any other 
to which you feel attracted, and meditate upon it word for 
word, proceeding to the next word only when the former 
no longer affords matter for pious thoughts and sentiments. 
Other suitable thoughts and comparisons may here come in 
with great profit, thus developing the subject. Let us apply 
this method to the Hail Mary. 

Before Kneeling Down. 
What am I going to do? I am going to meditate upon 
the Hail Mary, ever-Blessed Virgin! obtain for me the 
grace to make this meditation well. 

Kneel Down. 

^^Hail!^^ Who speaks this word? The Archangel Ga- 
briel. To whom ? To the ever-Blessed Virgin Mary. Such 
a word testifies deep reverence. The archangel owed rever- 
ence to Mary, for she was to become the Mother of his King, 
consequently she was to be his queen. What honor for 
Mary ! Holy Virgin ! I congratulate thee on thy happi- 
ness ! Thy virtues merited this honor. By them thou 
didst prove thyself worthy of it. I, too, salute thee as my 



Fourth Method of Prayer. 353 

Queen, as my Mother, as the Mother of my Saviour ! It is 
meet that I should salute thee with the deepest reverence, 
since an archangel has humbled himself before thee ! When 
I say Hail Mary I I unite with all heaven and earth, for 
everywhere the sound of this beautiful salutation greets 
thee ! 

^'Mary!'' beautiful name! Most consoling name! 
Name most worthy of love ! ISTame everywhere repeated 
with love ! Mary ! Mary ! This sweet name is the support 
of the weak, the comfort of the sorrowful, the hope of the 
sinner, the last help of the dying. Mary ! If the whole 
time of my meditation were passed in repeating it, in tasting 
its sweetness and rejoicing in it, the time w^ould be profit- 
ably employed. The name of Mary signifies Star of the 
Sea. Behold how she justifies this title by guiding us 
happily through the dangers of life ! Mary signifies Lady 
and Queen: and is Mary in truth not such? Mary signi- 
fies Light: and does not divine light come through her? 
Mary, be my star, my queen, my light ! 

^^Full of grace V^ A vessel filled is incapable of receiv- 
ing more. If more be poured into it, it will overflow. 
Thus it was with Mary. Her soul was full of grace, of 
light, of knowledge; her heart was full of grace, of love, 
of holy desires; her virginal body was full of grace, full 
of purity, full of holiness. " Thou art full of grace V 
Therefore there was in her no vacuum; sin could find no 
room in her. Immacluate Virgin ! All is grace within 
thee; there is no sin. Thou wast full of grace from the 
moment of thy Immaculate Conception, and thou didst 
afterward receive by thy faithful co-operation that full, 
heaped-up, and overfiowing measure of grace of which the 
Holy Scripture speaks. In the mystery of the holy Incar- 
nation Mary^s measure of grace was unspeakable; for she 
possessed the Source of all grace. '' Thou art full of grace 1^^ 
Mary was inundated with graces, that their superabundance 
might flow over upon us. Oh yes^ I shall often hasten to 



354 Appendix. 

this holy source^ which never ceases to pour out on men 
the living streams of divine grace. 

" The Lord is with thee V^ The Lord is in all just souls^ 
but in Mary in a much more perfect manner; since she 
was the most just and most perfect of all creatures. The 
Heavenly Father is in her by divine complacency^ as in 
His best-beloved daughter. The Son of God is in her as 
in His purest tabernacle^ which from all eternity He select- 
ed and prepi^red for Himself. The Holy Ghost is in her 
as in His temple, which He adorned and fitted up with His 
richest gifts. ^^The Lord is with thee V^ He is alwa3^s 
with thee, and He v^as always with thee, because sin never 
forced Him to withdraw from thee. my God, be Thou 
always with me ! Permit not that I should ever be sepa- 
rated from Thee by sin ! 

^^ Blessed art thou among women !'^ Mary herself an- 
nounces to us, in her canticle of praise, that from hence- 
forth, now, and forever all generations shall call her blessed. 
And, in effect, her sanctuaries are, everywhere and through- 
out the length and breadth of the land, the expression of 
the love and ardent devotion of her children. What woman 
was ever honored as Mary is ? And what woman ever 
merited to be so honored? 

'"^And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus V^ — Jesus ! 
Divine Name, brought by the archangel from heaven ! — 
Jesus, Saviour of the world; Jesus, Son of the Most High, 
is also the Son of Mary, the fruit of her chaste womb ! 
holy Virgin, I congratulate thee that thou art the Mother 
of Jesus, the Mother of thy God ! Blessed be Jesus ! 
Blessed in heaven, blessed on earth ! Jesus, I praise 
Thee, I love Thee, I adore Thee, I give Thee thanks for 
Thy great glory ! 

The Hail Mary may be paraphrased differently. This 
example will suffice for illustration. It is hardly necessary 
to add that the same method may be applied to other vocal 
prayers. 

If two or three words of the prayer chosen suffice to fill 



Sixth Method of Prayer. 355 

lip the whole time of meditation, pause upon those words, 
and repeat the rest at the close without dwelling on the 
particular words. On the following day, resume the medi- 
tation where you left off the day before. 

Fifth Method of Prayer. 

The fifth method of prayer consists in slowly reciting 
some vocal prayer, and pausing after each word for a space 
long enough to draw one breath. 

Let us apply this method to the prayer ^* Soul of Christ, 
sanctify me/^ 

(1) Recollect yourself, and ask yourself this question : 
What am I about to do ? 

(2) Implore God^s grace to derive great profit from this 
exercise. 

Now begin the prayer : '' Soul of Christ, sanctify me I 
Body of Christ, save me ! Blood of Christ, inebriate me!^^ 
etc. 

While sending forth these sighs laden with saving peti- 
tions, think either on the sense of the words, or the dignity 
of the person to whom they are addressed ; or upon your 
own unworthiness. 

This method is suitable to all persons and to all hours of 
the day. It may be used even during labor. It will be 
particularly beneficial to those who have the bad habit of 
saying vocal prayers hurriedly. According to this method, 
you can go thro^ugh several prayers one after the other, dis- 
continuing and resuming at pleasure. Conclude, as usual, 
with the Our Father and Hail Mary. 

Sixth Method of Prayer. 

Spiritual Reading in the Form of Consideration. 

Should a soul find herself in such a state of mind that, 
in spite of the five methods given above, meditation is still 
too difficult for her, then let her have recourse to the sixth 
method. This at least can always be employed, since, 



6d' 



Appendix. 



although affording almost the same advantages^ it is much 
asier than the foregoing. 

The sixth method of prayer^ called also Consideration, 
eis an exercise which takes the middle place between medi- 
tation and spiritual reading. In it one makes use of those 
books of devotion in which much meaning is contained in 
few words, as the "^^ Following of Christ/^ '^The Spiritual 
Combat/^ and other little books recommended by directors 
of souls according as necessity requires. Having made 
choice of a book, keep to it and go regularly through it, 
without lightly changing it, or skipping from one page to 
another. Beginning the consideration, recollect yourself 
before God, invoke His assistance, that you may derive ad- 
vantage from this exercise; and then read attentively a few 
lines from the book of devotion you have chosen. As soon 
as a thought containing some useful light, such as an ad- 
monition, an interior reproach, or one in any way suited 
to her wants, strikes the soul, stop reading. Weigh, meas- 
ure, and digest this thought till the heart is thoroughly 
penetrated with it, and has received from it a salutary im- 
pression. If the imagination stra3'S, lead it back to the 
thought in question by re-reading the sentence that sug- 
gested it, and thus repeat as its greater or less importance 
may require. In a word, such spiritual nourishment should 
be masticated until all its flavor is tasted, without the least 
concern as to whether or not the reading is advancing. 
Your business is to apply to yourself the truth to which 
you feel drawn. After completely exhausting it, proceed 
with your reading. If a second thought offers similar food 
for the soul, dwell upon it as before, and then proceed to 
the third, fourth, and fifth; thus continuing till the time 
prescribed for the exercise has expired. In this way you 
may possibly read at one time more, at another less. At 
one time half a page will suffice; or again, you may require 
a number of pages. But what you read, whether much or 
little, will always be of immense profit. Of what use to 
the soul is it to devour the very best books and writings 



Method for Examination of Conscience. 357 

without making reflection ? Xo matter how copious the 
spring, he that draws from it in a sieve will never get but 
a few drops of water. Therefore, read slowly. Take time 
to digest, so to say, what you have read; for spiritual nour- 
ishment is like corporal food in this, that it does not pro- 
duce the good effects it should when taken too hurriedly. 

The sixth method of j)rayer is very like to the fourth, 
only that a book takes the place of a prayer. The book is 
before the eyes, and is, therefore, all the better suited not 
only to furnish new material for thought, but also to fetter 
the inconstant imagination. This method is particularly 
recommended to souls that complain of dryness and dis- 
traction in prayer. St. Teresa says that she herself used 
it for a long time, and with great profit. She tells us even 
that for several years she was quite unable to meditate in 
any other way. 

Method for Examination of Conscience. 

In the examination of conscience five points are required: 
(1) Thanksgiving; (2) Petition for light; (3) Self-exami- 
nation; (4) Sorrow; (5) Resolution. 

(1) Thaxksgiyixg. — After placing oner's self more 
particularly in the presence of God, recall the innumerable 
benefits He has bestowed u]3on you, and compare them with 
your own ingratitude — a comparison which ought to con- 
found the soul deeply. After this thank our dear Lord 
for all His gifts and graces, in general and particular, spir- 
itual and temporal, known and unknown, and in particular 
for those bestowed upon you this day. All this is to be 
done briefly and fervently. 

(2) Petition foe Light. — Here one prays for the 
grace to know and detest his sins. The heart is an impene- 
trable abyss, in which self-love spreads the deepest dark- 
ness. Without light from above, one can never rightly 
know one^s self; therefore, pray for this light. 

(3) The Examixatiox Proper. — One may examine 
himself upon his thoughts, words, and actions; or ask him- 



358 Appendix, 

S3lf whether God^ his neighbor^, and he himself can be 
satisfied with them; or he goes through his various occu- 
pations since his last examination^ and probes to find 
whether he has sinned in motives^ intentions^ or external 
actions. Yet this should not^ in general^ occupy more than 
three or four minutes. 

(4) Sorrow. — This and the following point are the 
most important of the examination of conscience; hence 
the greatest care ought to be employed in them. This will 
be rendered much easier to us by some sensible representa- 
tion^ some striking example from real life^ or a touching 
illustration. Among the most applicable we select that of 
St. Peter^ on whom the Saviour^ after his denial, cast a 
tender and reproachful glance ; St. Mary Magdalen at the 
feet of Jesus during the meal at the Pharisee^s house; the 
publican who, iu his humility, stood at the door of the 
Temple. It is good at this time to gaze upon a Crucifix 
or some other representation of Our Saviour^s Passion, or 
of His holy Mother; for example, the agony in the garden, 
the scourging of Jesus, one of the Stations, or a picture of 
the Dolorous Mother. This should be accompanied by 
reflection on the difl'erent motives which could move us to 
sorrow. Such practices are good, and one should follow 
in them his particular attraction. In concluding, an act 
of contrition should be made with all possible fervor; and 
for some souls it would be well to pronounce the words 
with the lips. 

(5) Eesolutiox. — Here one may use some compari- 
son that will assist his weakness and enkindle holy senti- 
ments in his heart. Let him ask himself, for example : 
Would not a traitor condemned to death, but who has been 
magnanimously pardoned by his prince, henceforth serve 
that prince most faithfully ? Would not a captain whose 
carelessness had almost led to shipwreck be more careful 
in future? 

After these and other short reflections, promise our dear 
Lord with the assistance of His grace to sin no more. Con- 



Method f 01' Examination of Conscience. 359 

Sider now in advance to what occasions of sin you will 
be exposed nntil the next examination^ and beg God to 
strengthen yon to pass through them unscathed. Implore 
also the assistance of the dear Mother of God and the guard- 
ian angel, and conclude with the Our Father and Hail Marij, 
Let us now make a practical application of this. 

Before Kneeling : 

my God, grant that I may know Thee and know my- 
self! (St. Augustine.) Grant me the grace to make this 
examination well. 

Kneel. 

First Point : THA:NrKSGiyi:N^G. — my God, I thank 
Thee from my whole heart for all Thy benefits ! Thou 
hast created me, and in Thy infinite mercy preserved me 
until now. Thou hast granted me in preference to so 
many others the gift of faith, and after having by the light 
of the Holy Gospel shown me the way of virtue. Thou dost 
also lead me therein by Thy holy grace. (Here recall some 
special benefit you have received from God.) What choice 
graces have again been bestowed upon you even on this 
day by the Divine Goodness! (for example. Holy Mass, 
confession, Communion, a sermon, holy inspirations, good 
example.) my God! I acknowledge that Thou wiliest 
my salvation, my perfection. Be Thou a thousand times 
blessed for it ! 

Secoxd Poin^t: Implore Light. — After all these bene- 
fits grant me Lord, the grace of Thy divine light, that I 
may know all my sins, particularly those which displease 
Thee most. Divine Sun of Justice, enlighten the dark- 
ness which distraction, earthly inclinations, and self-love 
have created in my heart and mind ! Let me understand 
how often and severely the enemy has wounded my soul, 
that I may seek and apply a remedy before it is too late ! 

Third Poixt: ExAMiisrATioi^. — How have I performed 
my usual occupations to-day ? 



o 



60 Appendix. 



In the morning : Eising, morning prayers^ meditation. 
Holy Mass, breakfast, work, intercourse with others, etc. ? 

Noon : Dinner, recreation, visits made or received, labor, 
spiritual reading, prayers, etc. ? 

Have I in all this offended God or my neighbor ? failed 
in some virtue ? 

Fourth Poi:n^t : Sorrow.— my God, how deeply con- 
fused I should feel when I compare Thy benefits with my 
ingratitude; Thy love with my indifference; the proofs of 
Thy loving and preventing grace with my endless delays ! 
Yes, I acknowledge that I have wounded Thy Sacred Heart, 
and this fills me with sorrow and confusion. Eeject not, 
Lord, the sorrow of a contrite and humble heart ! Give 
to my eyes a fountain of tears, and day and night I will 
bewail the misfortune of having offended Thee. Grant me 
the contrition of St. Peter, the tears of St. Magdalen, the 
humility of the publican, since like them I am laden with 
debt. Eternal Father ! look upon Thy only-begotten 
Son Jesus Christ, who became an atoning Sacrifice for us ! 
Behold His nail-pierced hands and feet, His thorn-crowned 
head. His wounded Heart I His wounds are so many elo- 
quent tongues imploring grace for me. my God, forgive 
me ! Upon my knees I implore Thy pardon. Thou wilt 
surely grant my petition, for Thou hast said: ^"^I will not 
the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and 
live.^^^ 

Fifth Poikt: Eesolutio:n'. — My God,. henceforward no 
more sin ! I shall carefully close against it all the doors of 
my heart. I will avoid every occasion of sin, yes, even 
when possible, every thought tending thereto. I have 
hitherto been so unfaithful to my resolutions that I scarcely 
venture to renew them; but I hope in future to be more 
watchful and courageous; and I firmly expect from Thee 
Thy holy grace, with which assistance I shall faithfully 
and perseveringly fulfil my good resolution till death. 
ever-Blessed Virgin Mary, bless the resolutions that I place 
1 Ezech. xxxiii. 11. 



The Monthly Retreat of One Day. 36 1 

under thy care and protection ! Our Father and Hail 
Mary. 

Note. — This method may answer for the particular ex- 
am en^ in which you make it a point to overcome some evil 
propensity or to acquire some special virtue. One may 
combine the particular examen with the general by inquir- 
ing^ at the close of the latter, whether since the last exam- 
ination one has been guilty of the fault in question, or 
failed in the virtue. 

Directions to render the Exercises of the Month- 
ly Retreat of One Day profitable. 

Choose one day in the month on which you will have 
most leisure, on which you will be less occupied or dis- 
tracted. On the eve of the retreat say most devoutly the 
hymn, " Come, Holy Ghost, ^^ to implore the light of the 
Holy Spirit, and one Hail Mary to commend your retreat 
to the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Then make 
the following meditation, which may serve as a preparation 
for the retreat : 

Meditation for the Eve of the Retreat, 

On the Virtues which are Necessary as a Preparation for Re- 
treat. 

I. PRELiMi:NrARY Prelude. — Eepresent to yourself the 
healing of the blind man of Jericho. He casts himself on 
his knees before Jesus. The Saviour asks him : ^' What 
wilt thou that I should do to thee ?^' '^ Lord, that I may 
see V' answered the blind man. And Jesus said to him : 
^^ Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. ^^ ' Imagine 
Jesus putting the same question to you. Answer Him 
with the blind man: ^"^ Lord, that I may see I That in 
this retreat I may see what is wanting to me and what 
Thou requirest of me.^^ 

II. Prelude.— my God! do Thou Thyself infuse into 

1 .Alai k X. 49-53. 



362 Appendix. 

my soul the disposition in which I should be^ to derive 
great profit from my retreat. 

FIRST POINT: FIRST VIRTUE. 
The Sincere Desire to know One's Self thoroughly. 
Have I this desire ? Is it not a secret fear of seeing my- 
self in the true light that alarms me, lest I should have to 
reproach myself ? If I really and honestly desire self- 
knowledge, I shall have to ask myself seriously : What 
progress have I until now made in perfection ? What profit 
have I derived from the reception of the holy Sacraments ? 
What victories have I gained over myself, the devil, and 
the world ? What virtues have I practised ? What merits 
have I accumulated ? What zeal have I displayed for my 
eternal welfare ? Could I now appear before the judgment- 
seat of God without fear ? 

SECOND POINT: SECOND VIRTUE. 
Great Confidence in God and Mistrust of Self. 

Without God I can do nothing, but with Him all 
things! His grace is more powerful than all hell — and this 
grace is already prepared for me. I need only ask for it. 
God loves me, notwithstanding my past infidelity; and 
through love He again grants me this retreat as a means of 
salvation. ^"^ Come into solitude, ^^ He says to me, ^*'and 
there I will speak to thy heart. ^^ ' What goodness ! And 
shall I not have confidence in Him? my God! I can do 
nothing, but Thou art all-powerful. Assist me with Thy 
grace. 

THIRD POINT : THIRD VIRTUE. 
Generosity. 

The Lord will during this retreat speak to your heart. 
Excite in yourself the same dispositions in which St. Paul 
was when he was struck down on his way to Damascus : 
" Lord, what wilt Thou have me do T^ ^ or say with Samuel: 
^^ Speak, Lord; Thy servant heareth;'^ ^ or with David: ^^ My 
heart is ready, Lord; my heart is ready /^^ AVhat offering 

J Osee ii. 14. « Acts ix. C, s I. Kings iii. 9. * P« Ivi. 8. 



The Monthly Retreat of One Day. 363 

(lost Thou expect of me ? I shall bring it to Thee without 
delay. Speak^ Lord! my heart is ready. 

Conclude the meditation as you began it^ with the prayer: 
Lord, that I may see^ that I may see my soul as it is^ with 
its weaknesses^ its imperfections^ its sins! Blessed A^irgin 
Mary, obtain for me the grace to know mj^self thoroughly, 
and truly to amend ! Our Father, Hail Mary. 

Before retiring to rest, read the points of meditation for 
the next morning. For this purpose choose some good 
book, and in it a serious subject ; for example, the end of 
man, the necessity of salvation, the heinousness of sin, the 
abuse of grace, an eternity of happiness or misery, etc. 
But if j^ou have no book, ask yourself the following ques- 
tions : 

(1) What has God done for my salvation? Baptism, 
Christian education, graces, Sacraments, good example, 
retreats. With fewer graces I should already have become 
a saint. 

(2) What does God require of me ? That I should faith- 
fully follow His inspirations, avoid sin, do violence to my 
passions, particularly to the predominant one ; that I should 
be modest, retiring, humble, fervent, Have I in all this 
complied with what God requires? 

(3) What have I to expect from God ? He blesses those 
that are faithful to Him. But the unfruitful fig-tree He 
caused to be hewn down, the unfruitful vine uj)rooted and 
consigned to the flames. my God! avert from me this 
misfortune ! I will love and serve Thee. Do Thou 
strengthen me, and grant me the grace to be faithful to all 
the resolutions I shall take in this retreat. Our Father, 
Hail Mary. 

Exercises for the Day of Retreat. 

On rising, offer the day to God and beg His grace to spend 
it holily. 

After the ordinary morning prayers, spend half an hour 
in meditation, for which you prepared the evening before in 



364 Appe7idix. 

the manner above mentioned. Then assist at Holy Mass^ 
at which communicate. 

During the whole day observe silence and interior recol- 
lection^ in so far as your condition, occupations, and sur- 
roundings permit. It is well that those of our household 
should not know that we are in retreat, unless in the case 
that it would occasion no unpleasant consequence. 

In the course of the morning, read attentively the regu- 
lations of the day, and the resolutions taken in former 
retreats ; or if you have not written any, recall the advice 
of your confessor, particularly that which he has most im- 
pressed upon you. See how you stand with God, and 
resolve firmly to banish from your heart all that displeases 
Him, in order to live henceforth according to His good 
pleasure. You may make one of the following reflections 
on the present state of your soul, devoting to this an hour 
or a half-hour, as circumstances may allow. 

If you have time in the afternoon visit the Blessed Sacra- 
ment and a chapel of the Mother of God, where you may 
with great benefit make use of the truly excellent book 
compiled for this purpose by St. Alphonsus Liguori. Then 
read some good book of devotion for half an hour, and 
toward evening prepare yourself for death, as mentioned 
on page 368. 

Reflections on the Present* State of the Soul. 

After imploring the light of the Holy Ghost, consider in 
the presence of God how you perform your most impor- 
tant actions, and how you are affected toward God, your 
neighbor, and the most essential virtues. In this observe 
the order here given. 

I. DEVOTioisrs. — Do I value them more highly than any- 
thing else ? Do I perform them faithfully and punctually? 
Is my exterior deportment reverential ? Am I recollected, 
retired, modest, keeping exact custody of the eyes? Do I 
neglect to prepare carefully for my devotional exercises by 



Reflections on the Present State of the SouL 365 

recollecting myself some moments before^ quieting ' my 
imagination and senses^ recalling the presence of God^ and 
reflecting on what I am about to do ? Do I^ without 
anxiety or disturbance^ banish distractions when perceived? 
or^ at leasts do I deny them deliberate consent^ when I can- 
not at once rid myself of them? In spiritual dryness^ am 
I not vexed^ instead of enduring it humbly and patiently 
in punishment of past negligence ? Do I not give way at 
once to discouragement ? 

Now go through your essential devotions separately. See 
how you have performed them^ and what profit you have 
drawn from them : 

Meditation. — Preparation for it; the ordinary cause of 
its not being successful^ or of its trifling results; distrac- 
tions^ too great attachment to creatures. 

General and Particular Examinations of Conscience, — 
Do I make them seriously? Are they accompanied with an 
earnest desire of amendment^ or do I go through the work 
carelessly^ or with a cowardly, superficial oversight? For 
every trivial fault that I commit do I impose upon myself 
a corresponding penance ? 

Sinritual Reading, — In this do I indulge my curiosity or 
satisfy the wants of my soul ? Do I read regularly and 
perseveringly, or am I inconstant, changing at every 
moment my subject or my book? Do I read with a 
prayerful spirit? Do I honestly desire to derive profit 
from my reading? Do I pray to God for this grace? 
Do I pause to reflect when I come upon something particu- 
larly applicable to my state? When the reading is finished, 
do I think over it, and call again the most striking points, 
to impress them more deeply on my mind? 

Holy Mass — Vocal Prayers — Public Services — Church 
Devotions. — With what attention, reverence, and devotion 
do I assist at them ? In what sentiments do I hear the 
Word of God? 

Confession, — Do I confess through custom, without pur- 
pose^ or desire of amendment ? without carefully exciting 



J 



66 Appendix. 



contrition ? Is my accusation open^ generous, clear, and void 
of a thousand useless narrations that serve but to perplex? 
Do I in every confession make a particular resolution? 

Communion, — Do I abstain from it through fear? Do I 
desire to receive often through vanity ? Do I prepare my- 
self carefully, especially by offering some small sacrifice 
every time ? How do I make my thanksgiving ? What 
advantage do I derive from Holy Communion? Am I not 
negligent in making spiritual communions? 

IT. Deportment toward God. — Do I evince toward 
Him due reverence, love, resignation, confidence, and 
gratitude ? Do I try to please Him as my Lord, Father, 
Friend, and Spouse ? Do I perform my actions all for God, 
and do I often renew this intention? Do I recall that I 
am always under the eyes of God ? What care do I bestow 
on the purity of my conscience ? Do I not lightly commit 
many faults, under the pretext that they are but venial? 
What is the nature of my love for Jesus ? my devotion to 
the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar? to Mary? to the saints? 
to my patron saint ? my guardian angel ? 

III. Toward the Neighbor. — Do I wish him well? 
Am I indulgent in my judgments, gentle and patient ? or 
do I not sin by bitterness, jealousy, aversion, and censo- 
riousness? Whence spring so many other faults against 
charity — detraction, slanders, rash judgments, slight injur- 
ies, desire of revenge, ridicule, little secret rancor, outbursts 
of ill-humor, emotions of violence? Do I in a spirit of faith 
regard my neighbor as the representative of Him who said: 
" As long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you 
did it to Me.^^^ How easily we would bear with one another 
if guided by this principle of faith ! 

IV. Do I care for my salvation and perfection ? Do I 
consider this care as my most important, my only affair? 
What progress do I make in virtue, in self-denial, in the 
spirit of penance ? Do I love the cross ? or do I at least 
embrace every opportunity to bear my own with resignation 

J Mo-tt. :sxv. 40, 



Reflections on the Present State of the Soul, 367 

and without murmur? What sacrifices do I impose upon 
myself to please God and to atone for my sins and faults? 

How far have I advanced in the most necessary virtues — 
in faith^ whose spirit should penetrate my whole life ; in 
hope and in confidence ; in that interior peace whose foun- 
dation rests on confidence^ and excludes all anxiety, faint- 
heartedness^ and discouragement; in obedience according 
to my state of life, the renunciation of my own will, and 
divestment of all earthly goods ; in purity, and careful 
avoidance of dangerous occasions, of curiosity, levity, and a 
too natural love; in humility and mistrust of my own 
strength ? Do I love or do I at least peaceably endure 
humiliations, contempt, being forgotten, having others 
preferred to myself ? How do I stand in regard to vanity, 
self-complacency, the desire to shine and rule ? Do I ever 
despise my neighbor ? 

V. How do I correspond with the grace of divine inspira- 
tion ? What victories have I gained over my predominant 
passion? What pains have I taken to govern my temper, to 
detach my heart from creatures ? Does not some inordinate 
inclination, some impediment to my perfection, reign in my 
heart, which I will not sacrifice, although God has long de- 
manded it of me ? What is this inclination ? What must 
I do to remove it ; for what am I waiting, in order to be 
able to sacrifice it to God ? 

In what do I employ my time — in useful things or in 
trifles ; in idle talk, vain fancies, airy castle-building, in 
dreams that are so often dangerous ? Every moment of 
time can purchase eternity. What w^ould not a damned 
soul give for a single moment? 

VL Keflect, also, how you comply w^ith the special duties 
of your state and office, for general duties too often lead us 
to forget particular ones. And yet these require attention, 
fervor, assiduity, punctuality, and perseverance, to over- 
come one^s self when at times one experiences such disgust 
for them as to be tempted to leave them undone. 

In a word, do I live by faith, like the just man who con- 



368 Appendix. 

siders all earthly things in the light of eternity ? or do I 
live according to my self-love^ according to the spirit of 
the worlds which regards all things only in relation to this 
earthly life ? 

Upon all these matters examine yourself seriously before 
God. Then with sincere sorrow blot out the faults you have 
committed. Think of the occasions in which you may be 
likely to relapse^ renew your resolutions with humility and 
confidence^ and start on the way again with fresh courage, 
placing all your hope in the Lord, being neither discour- 
aged nor cast down at the sight of your own misery. 

Preparation for Death. 

Kneel down before a Crucifix, and represent to yourself 
that your last hour has come; that an angel says to you as 
once to Ezechias : '^'^Give charge concerning thy house, for 
thou shalt die, and not live.^^ ^ Implore of God the grace 
of a happy death. 

FIRST POINT. 
What does it Mean to Die ? 

I shall die, that is: (1) I shall leave all, . . . parents, 
family, friends, house, goods, furniture, everything. ... To 
what persons or things do I most cling? These as well as 
all the rest I shall leave. Terror seizes me at the thought of 
this all-embracing separation — and yet death is nothing else. 
And should I attach my heart to earthly things ? Should I 
weary and torment myself in the pursuit of perishable 
goods? No — a thousand times no ! 

I shall die, that is : (2) My soul shall separate from my 
body. This body, a ghastly corpse, will then lie without 
life or motion, an object of horror or compassion for all ; 
finally, it will be buried, and become the food of worms. 
Yes, this head, these eyes, this tongue, these feet, these 
hands, will be consigned to rottenness .... And through 
love of this body of clay, shall I risk my soul, my eternity? 
JSTo — a thousand times no ! 

1 IV. Kings XX. 1. 



Prepai^ation for Death. 369 

SECOND POINT. 
When and How shall I Die ? 

I know not. One may die at any age^ at all times^ and 
in all places^ of any kind of disease. Shall I have time to 
prepare for death? Shall I be able to receive the holy 
.Sacraments? I hope so^ but I do not know. Many have 
been suddenly surprised by deaths and the same may hap- 
pen to me. When one is ill^ and particularly when he is 
in the last agony, he cannot easily prepare well for death. 
At that moment he possesses but little memory, but little 
knowledge, and perhaps but little strength of will ; and 
yet our eternity depends upon that moment ! 

THIRD POINT. 
Am I Ready to Die Now ? 

Does nothing hold me to the earth ? Am I ready to 
appear before the Judgment-seat of God? Does no sin 
cause me anxiety ? Have I nothing to fear for my confes- 
sions, for my Communions^ for so many graces received ? 
frightful moment ! To be judged . . . by an all-just, 
.... all-wise, .... all-powerful God, . . . who hates sin 
above all things! After a serious meditation of these truths, 
make your resolutions, and recite, kneeling, the following 
prayers : 

Prayer of Absolute Submission to the Law of Death. 

God Almighty, Lord of life and of death, who for the 
punishment of sin hath in Thy unchangeable decrees ap- 
pointed for all men once to die, behold me humbly pros- 
trate at Thy feet, prepared to submit to this law of Thy 
justice ! In the bitterness of my heart I bewail my trans- 
gressions. As an obstinate sinner, I have deserved death a'' 
thousand times ; therefore I accept it in obedience to Thy 
holy will. I accept it as an atonement for my innumerable 
sins. I accept it in union with the death of my Redeemer. 
24 



3 7o Appendix. 

... I wish to die^ my God! when it pleases Thee^ 

where it pleases Thee^ and how it pleases Thee The 

time Thy divine mercy still grants me shall be employed 
in divesting myself of a world in which I have only some 
moments to stay ; in loosening the bonds that enchain me 
to this place of banishment ; and in preparing my soul for 
the hour of Thy fearful judgment. ... I remit myself^ 
without reserve to Thy ever fatherly providence. Thy holy 
will be done in all things forever ! Amen. 

Prayer To Obtain the Grace of a Happy Death. 

my GodJ? prostrate before the throne of Thy adorable 
Majesty, I beg of Thee the final grace of a happy death. 
I have indeed often made a bad use of the life Thou 
gavest me ; but grant that I may end it well, and die in 
Thy love ! 

Let me die like the holy patriarchs, leaving without regret 
this valley of tears, to go and enjoy eternal rest in my true 
country ! 

Let me die like blessed St. Joseph, in the arms of Jesus 
and Mary, calling upon those sweet names, which I hope to 
love and praise for all eternity ! 

Let me die like the ever-Blessed Virgin Mary, inflamed 
with the most pure love, and ardently desiring to be united 
with the only Object of all my afPections ! 

Let me die like Jesus on the cross, in the most lively 
sentiments of hatred for sin, love for my Heavenly Father, 
and resignation in the midst of sufferings ! 

Heavenly Father! into Thy hands I commend my spirit : 
have mercy on me ! 

Jesus, who didst die for love of me, grant me grace to 
die in Thy love ! 

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for me noAV and at the 
hour of my death ! 

Angel of God, faithful guardian of my soul, and you, 
great saints, whom God gave me for protectors, do not 
forsake me at the hour of my death I 



Preparation for Death, 371 

St. Joseph;, obtain for me^ by thy powerful intercession^ 

that I MAY DIE THE DEATH OF THE JUST I Amen, 

Invocation. 

Soul of Christy sanctify me : 

Body of Christy save me : 

Blood of Christy inebriate me : 

"Water from the side of Christy wash me : 

Passion of Christy strengthen me : 

good Jesus! hear me ; 

Within Thy wounds hide me: 

Permit me not to be separated from Thee : 

From the malignant enemy defend me : 

In the hour of my death call me. 

And bid me come to Thee, 

That with Thy saints I may praise Thee 

Forever and ever ! Amen. 



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Preparation for Death ; or, Considerations on the Eter- 
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Pious Reflections. Spiritual Treatises. 
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A MEMORIAL OF A GHRISTIAN LIFE. 

CONTAINING 

A.11 that a Soul, newly converted to God, ought to do that it may 
attain the Perfection to which it should aspire. 

FROM THE SPANISH OF 

The Venerable F, Lewis de Granada, 

Of THE Order of St. Dominic. 
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This new translation, by one of our Friars, removes the objections made to former 
editions, and is the only one of which we approve. J. A. Rotchford, O. P. 

Benziger Brothers, New York, Cincinnati & Chicago 



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